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CYPRIPEDIUM— THE MOCCASIN Flower. 

STATE FLOWER OF MINNESOTA. 



THE 

Story of the North 
Star State 



BY 



DANIEL E. WILLARD, A. M., 

Fellow Am. Geog. Soc; Fellow A. A. A. S. 

Formerly Professor of Geology, State Agricultural College of North Dakota 



Author of "The Story of the Prairies^'''' ''Geography of 
North Dakota^'''' etc. 



Printed for the Author by 

WEBB PUBLISHING COMPANY 

SAINT PAUL. MINN. 






^^ 



Copyright, 1922 
By DANIEL E. WILLARD 



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CCi -D,,.2 



C1A683547 



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PREFACE 

Minnesota is a State of varied natural resources. Within the boun- 
daries of the State are the oldest lands in the world, the oldest known 
geologic formations, — the ancient granites, and the youngest forma- 
tions, — the glacial deposits. 

The purpose of this book has been to set forth in simple language 
the scientific story of this great land. The story ought to be both interest- 
ing and valuable, for upon a proper understanding of the facts depends 
the best development of the natural resources of the State. Such a 
story might be dry and tedious. It may be as interesting as a romance. 
It depends upon hoAv the story is told. To be scientific a treatise does 
not have to be hard. Scientific facts do not necessarily need to be ex- 
pressed in technical language. Many-syllabled words sometimes conceal 
ignorance. The most profound facts of science may be stated in simple 
and readable language. 

Whatever may be said of the style and language of this book the 
subject should be interesting because it is vitally important. The fer- 
.tility of the soil is not a matter of chance but a product or result of activi- 
ties that have been long going on. The best method of approach to an 
understanding of the soil is through a study of the way by which the 
soils were formed. The best use of the soil is learned by knowing the 
nature of the soil. The present volume treats of events that have occur- 
red by which these results have come about. It is an attempt to explain 
the history of the soils, the rivers and lakes, the forests and the mines. 
It is the story of the land. 

"The Story of the North Star State" is intended for the great read- 
ing public of Minnesota. The natural resources of soil, of rivers and 
lakes, of scenic beauty, of mines, of rocks, and of forests ought to be of 
interest to every citizen. 

The book is intended for use as a text-book in schools. The rising 
generation ought to know the State and its resources. The author has 
had many years' experience in educational work. It is his opinion, based 
upon observation and experience, that in the curricula of our schools not 
enough time is devoted to the study of our own State and its resources. 
It is hoped that the present volume will supply in some measure the 
need for a text that deals with home geography. 

Few books of the character of the present volume have, within the 
author's knowledge, been written about any State. This book has not 
been modeled after the work of any other, but has been written to supply 
what the author regards as a definite need. 



4 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Several years ago the author published "The Story of the Prairies," 
a popular treatise on the prairie State of North Dakota. The author 
had then but recently left the University w^iere as a student he had oc- 
casion to consult many dusty volumes, and to read many pages of tedious 
technical matter. "The Story of the Prairies" was v^^ritten in protest 
against the unnecessarily hard, dry, and technical treatment of the 
subjects studied. If a writer knew what he wanted to say why could he 
not say it in common simple language such as could be readily under- 
stood by one of average intelligence "? 

The reception that has been accorded that book has far exceeded the 
author's expectations. It is now in the ninth edition. It is widely used 
in the schools of North Dakota and is in the libraries of most of the large 
cities of the country. It has found readers in nearly every State in the 
Union, in Canada, and many European countries. The general plan of 
"The Story of the Prairies" has been followed in the present volume. 

In the final chapters, under the title "Geology from a Car Win- 
dow," is given a traveler's view of what has been described in the fore- 
going pages. It has been attempted to point out what any observer can 
.see as he goes; to aid the leader who travels to know what he sees at the 
time he is looking at it. It is intended that these chapters shall serve 
as a kind of laboratory jzuide illustrating and pointing out the features 
of the landscape that have been described. 

There are those who travel yet do not see what they look at. There 
are those who look out from a car window and see only grass. A hill is 
taken for granted as a hill; a river as a i iver. Often it is not realized 
that there is a reason for every hill, and a history of every river, that 
the stones that lie in the field are not there by accident but are the result 
of definite processes. 

To the pupils in our schools it is hoped that "Geology from a Car 
Window" will be of assistance in the stndy of local home geography. 
The chaiacter of the landscape about every railroad station in the 
State is described. Thus local examples of the geologic features that 
have been described in the preceding chapters are si)ecifically pointed 
ont. It is thought that the descriptions in these chapters will be of value 
to the general I'eader foi- leference as well as an aid to observation in 
traveling, and will be of local interest in the study of home geography 
in the schools. 

In tile prcpai-ation of several (dia|)ters the authoi* has had most valu- 
able assistance from Dr. Frederick W. Sardeson, geologist to the Minne- 
sota State Securities Commission. l)i*. Sardeson has had wide experience 
in the field on Federal and State surveys, and his intimate knowledge 
of the gla^'ial geolo«jy of the State has made it possible to present a more 



PREFACE 5 

complete story than could otherwise have been done. Unpublished notes 
and records as well as his published papers have been freely drawn upon. 
The author wishes to acknowledge Dr. Sardeson's contribution to these 
chapters, and to express his appreciation of the cooperation extended. 

The author wishes to express appreciation to Dr. F. J. Ahvay, head 
of the Division of Soils, University of Minnesota, for reading in manu- 
script the chapter on the Soils of Minnesota, and for suggestions, advan- 
tage of which was taken in revising the manuscript, and also to Mr. 
Carlos Avery, State Game and Fish Commissioner, for very kindly read- 
ing and making suggestions on the chapter Out Doors in Minnesota, 
and for the loan from his department of cuts used in illustrating this 
chapter. 

The author's thanks are extended: to Mr. W. T. Cox, State Forester, 
for permission to go through the files of photographs in his office and to 
select those desired, a number of which appear in the text ; to Professor 
W. H. Emmons, director of the Minnesota Geological Survey, for the 
loan of cuts which have been used ; to the director of the U. S. Geological 
Survey for cuts from U. S. Publications and for photographs very kindly 
supplied from negatives in the files of the survey at Washington. 

In the preparation of the chapter on The Dalles of the St. Croix use 
has been made of Professor C. P. Berkey's Handbook, and acknowledg- 
ment is made of material drawn from this source. 

The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness for the use made 
of Bulletins 12, 13, and 14 of the Minnesota Geological Survey, and the 
accompanying maps, by Leverett and Sardeson. The text and maps of 
the bulletins have been freely drawn upon in the discussion of soils ; and 
the maps have been constantly used in checking the author's observa- 
tions in travels over the State and as a direct source of information in 
preparation of the chapters "Geology from a Car Window." 



CONTENTS 

Page 
CHAPTER I — The Landscape. - - - - - - - - 15 

Introductory; Meaning of the Landscape; The Types of Hills; Hills of 
Erosion; Hills of Glacial Deposit; Hills of Glacial Erosion; Hills 
of Wind Blown Sand; Loess Hills; Volcanic Hills and Hills of Up- 
lift; Plains; Prairies; Drainage. 

CHAPTER II — How a River Begins. - - - - - - _ 30 

Hills and Valleys; Beginnings of a Landscape. 
CHAPTER III — The Work of Land Ice. - - - - - - 36 

Conditrons under which Glaciers Form; How Ice Behaves under Great 
Pressure; An Illustration; The Great Ice Invasion of North America; 
Materials Carried in the Ice; Action of Ice on Surfaces Passed over; 
Moraines; Till Plains; Outwash Plains, 

CHAPTER IV — The Great Ice Sheets in Minnesota. - - - - 53 

The Greenland Ice Cap; The Ice Sheets in Minnesota; The Latest Ice In- 
vasion, the Wisconsin; The Third or Illinoisan Glacial Stage; The Sec- 
ond or Kansan Glacial Stage; The First Glacial Stage, The Nebraskan. 

CHAPTER V — An Excursion to Some Glaciers. - - - - - 64 

A Glance into Norway; Illustrations from Greenland. 
CHAPTER VI — Excursions in the Field. - - - - - - 72 

Among the Boulders; An Excursion to Some Quarries; Stratified Gravel 
and Sand in Sand Pits. 

CHAPTER VII — The Prairies and the Forests. - - - - - 83 

Land and Plant Provinces; Climate the Controlling Factor; The Strug- 
gle Between Prairie and Forest; The Hardwood Belt; The Struggle on 
Wet Lands; Muskeg. 

CHAPTER VIII — History of a Peat Bog. - - - - - - 93 

The Nature of Peat; Peat Bogs; History of a Peat Bog; Cross Section 
of a Peat Bog; Peat Beds Past and Present; From Lake to Peat Bog; 
From Forest to Marsh; Muskegs of the North; Hillside Bogs. 

CHAPTER IX — Minnesota the Old and the New. - - - - 99 

The Landscape Before the Ice Came; The Old Landscape Becomes New; 
Meaning of Old Landscape; How the Landscape was "Born"; Land 
Covered by the Sea; Remnants of the Ancient Sea Bottom. 

CHAPTER X — The Rock Foundations. - - - - - - 107 

Earth's Interior; In the Beginning; Formations Beneath the Surface; 
The Granite Foundation; The Geologic Formations in Minnesota; The 
Cretaceous; The Peleozoic; The Keeweenawan; The Huron. 

CHAPTER XI — Old Redstone. - - - - - - - - 115 

A Remnant of the Ancient Continent; Relation to Glacial Valley; 
Terraces Formed by Glacial River; Glacial River Obstructed; An 
Ancient Landmark. 

CHAPTER XII — Traverse Gap. - - - - - -- -121 

A Gap Across the Continental Divide; Traverse Gap and its Lakes; How 
Lake Agassiz Began; Lake Milnor. 

CHAPTER XIII— Glacial Lake Agassiz. - - - - - - 128 

The Beginnings of the Lake; Relation of Fergus Falls Moraine to the 
Lake; Increase in Size of the Lake; Depth of Water in the Lake; The 
Southern and Eastern Outlets; Earth Materials Deposited in the Lake; 
Beach Ridges or Shore Lines of the Ancient Lake. 

7 



8 . THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

CHAPTER XIV — Changes of Level of Lake Agassiz. - - - - 136 

Stages and Beaches; Causes of these Changes. 

CHAPTER XV — History of Minnesota River. - - - - - 144 

Retreat of the Minnesota Glacier; Outwash Plains Formed; Terraces 
Formed; Three Stages of Minnesota River; History of the River at 
New Ulm. 

CHAPTER XVI — The "New" Mississippi River. - - - - - 149 

The Old Valley of the Mississippi; Formation of Falls and Rapids; The 
Mississippi in New Course; Rivers Flooded by Waters from Melting Ice, 

CHAPTER XVII — The St. Croix River. - - - - - - 159 

Two Valleys Joined; Upper St. Croix-Crow Valley; Glaciers Again Block 
Valley; Lower St. Croix Valley Reopened; Upper St. Croix Opens Pres- 
ent Valley; Terraces Show Stages of River's History. 

CHAPTER XVIII — The Dalles of the St. Croix. - - - - - 165 

Approaching the Dalles; A Section Through Three Drift Sheets; Glacial 
River Terraces; Beds of Lava or Igneous Rock; The Sedimentary For- 
mations; Pot Holes; Time is Long. 

CHAPTER XIX — The Falls of St. Anthony. - - - - - 17 3 

A New Landscape; Beginning of the Falls; Recession and Disappearance 
of the First Fall; Beginning of the Falls of St. Anthony; An Aban- 
doned Fall below Minnehaha Creek; A Second Abandoned Fall at Min- 
nehaha; Progress of the Falls above Minnehaha; Nicollet Island Rap- 
ids; Cause of Recession of the Falls; Rate of Recession; Minnehaha 
Falls. 

CHAPTER XX— Lake Duluth. -•- - - - - - -183 

How the Lake Came to be; History of the Lake Shown in Land Forms; 
Lake Nemadji; Changes of Lake Level and Crustal Uplift; Lake Du- 
luth Bottom; The Struggle between River and Lake; Minnesota Point. 

CHAPTER XXI— Glacial Lakes Aitkin and Upham. - - - - 190 

Ancient Lake Bottom in Aitkin County; Lake Aitkin Named; Islands 
and Beaches; Lake Upham Named for Noted Geologist. 

CHAPTER XXII — The Lakes and Rivers of Freeborn County. - - 195 

A Detail of Glacial History; First Event: Advance of the Ice; Second 
Event: Retreat and Re-advance of the Ice; Third Event: Formation of 
Moraine and Lakes; Fourth Event: Re-advance of Ice Front; Fifth 
Event: Formation of Moraines and Ponding of Waters; Sixth Event: 
Moraine Blocks Drainage; Seventh Event: Old Valley Filled by Out- 
wash; Eighth Event: High Outwash Plain Formed; Lakes in Partially 
Filled Valleys. 

CHAPTER XXIII — The Lakes of Martin County. - - - - 203 

Three Remarkable Groups of Lakes; Chains-of-Lakes in Old River Val- 
leys; New Drainage System Established. 

CHAPTER XXIV — The Beginnings of Minnesota — The Ranges. - - 206 

The Oldest Known Land; The Iron and Copper Ranges; Origin and 
Occurrence of Iron; Summary. 

CHAPTER XXV— Cannon Falls and River. - 213 

Location and Name; Two River Systems Combined; Valleys Filled with 
Drift and New Courses Established; Drainage Reversed and Falls 
Formed; Resume. 



CONTENTS 9 

CHAPTER XXVI — The Soils of Minnesota. - - • - - - 219 

The Greatest Natural Resource; Definition of Soil; Character of Minne- 
sota Soils; General Types of Glacial Soils; Soil Classification; The 
Term "Clay" as Applied to Soils; The Soils of the "Driftless Area"; 
Loess Soils of Southeastern Minnesota; Loess Soils of Southwestern 
Minnesota; Soils of the Old Gray Drift; Soils of the Old Red Drift; 
Soils of the Young Red Drift; Soils of the Red Drift Overlaid by Gray 
Drift; Red Drift Soils of East Central Minnesota; Loam Soils of Mo- 
raines in Southeastern Minnesota; Soils of Moraines in Southwestern 
Minnesota; Soils of the Lake Park Region; South Central Minnesota; 
Gray and Red Drift Soils of Central Minnesota; The Lake Agassiz 
Plain; Lacustrine Soils Formed from Deep Water Sediments; Sandy 
Soils of the Shallow Waters; Soils from Lake-Washed Till; Soils of 
the Swamp Area; Soils of North Central Minnesota; O^^erridden Mo- 
raines of Itasca County and the Iron Ranges; Two Ancient Lake Bot- 
toms; The Northeastern Counties; The Lake Superior Clay. 

CHAPTER XXVII — Out Doors in Minnesota. - - - - - 249 

The Great Provinces of the State; Game, Past and Future; Wild Four- 
Footed Game; Game Birds; Game and Food Fishes. 

CHAPTER XXVIII — Geology From a Car Window. - - - - 275 

Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. 
CHAPTER XXIX— Geology From a Car Window. - - - - 300 

Chicago & Northwestern Railway; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & 
Omaha Railway. 

CHAPTER XXX — Geology From a Car Window. - - - - - 32 3 

Chicago Great Western Railway; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail- 
way; Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway. 

CHAPTER XXXI — Geology From a Car Window. - - - - 352 

Great Northern Railway. 
CHAPTER XXXII — Geology From a Car Window. - - - - 390 

Northern Pacific Railway. 
CHAPTER XXXIII — Geology From A Car Window. - - - - 417 

The Soo Line (St. Paul, Minneapolis & S. S. Marie Railv/ay.) 
CHAPTER XXXIV — Geology From A Car Window: - - - - 440 

The Iron Range Lines. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page. 

Cypripedium — The Moccasin Flower, State Flower of Minnesota 

Frontispiece 
-Altitude Map of Minnesota, - - - - - - - -14 

-Valley of the Mississippi at Minnesota City, ----- 17 

-A Fragment of Topography in the Lake Park Region, - - - 18 

-Second Growth Norway Pine on Stony Morainic Ridge, Cass County, 20 
-Shores and Islands of Vermilion Lake, - - - - - -22 

-A fertile Valley north of Vermilion Lake at Half-way House, - 26 

-Garden Plot of Anthony Gasco on Lake Harriet, Lake County, - 2 8 

-Diagram Showing How a Valley Begins at Its Own Mouth, - 32 

-Showing Formation of Moraine and Stratification of the Ice, - 36 

-Showing Moraine Being Crowded Upon by the Moving Ice, - 38 

-Diagram Showing Flowage of Pitch, ------ 39 

-A Striated and Polished Boulder, ------- 41 

-Hard Rock Surface Smoothed and Polished by Ice, Northern St. 

Louis County, ----------- i2 

-Striated, and Polished Quartzite Rock Surface, .Big Sioux Valley, 

S. D. West of Rock County, -------- 43 

-Granite Pebble, Showing Ice Planing and Strias, - - - - 44 

-Islands in Rainy Lake, Remnants of Hills Smooth and Polished 

by Glacier Ice, ----------- 44 

-Gray Drift Moraine, North of St. Paul, ------ 45 

-A Section in a Sandy Morainic Hill, ------- 47 

-Boulder Strewn Till-plain, Carlton County, ----- 48 

-Surface of Platteville Limestone Smoothed and Grooved by the 

Kansan Ice Sheet. ---------- 49 

-Outwa-^^h Plain of Gray Drift West of White Bear, - - - - 50 

-Esker Between Lakes in Eastern Lake County, - - - - 51 

-Map Showing Drift Deposits, Loess, and Glacial Lakes in Minnesota, 5 2 
-Map of Minnesota Showing Extent of Glacial Ice Sheets, Direction 

of Ice Movements, and Shores of Glacial Lakes, By Frank Lev- 

erett, -----__-----. 55 

-Farm on Stony Patrician Drift at Tower, ------ 57 

-Red Drift Moraine Veneered with Gray Drift, North of St. Paul, 58 

-Flax Field on Red River Clay Plain, ------- 60 

-Superior (Labradorian) Red Drift over Patrician Red Drift near 

Cloquet, ----- _ _ 61 

-Clayey Keewatin Drift over Stony Patrician Drift at Biwabik, - L 

-Old Red Drift Moraine near Hampton, ------ 62 

-A Glacier and Terminal Moraines, ------- 64 

-Near View of Glacier Front, Showing Ice Cave, - - - - 6 5 

-An Ice Cascade, ------------66 

-Terminal Moraine, Front of Glacier, and Glacier in Distance, - 66 

-Terminal Moraine and Ice Front Crowding Upon It, - - - - 68 

-Terminal Moraine Being Washed Away by Glacial Stream, - - 6 8 

-Map of Europe Showing Glaciated Area, ------ 69 

-Angular Outlines. Not Passed Over by Ice Sheet. West Coast of 

Greenland, ------------ 70 

-Smooth Outlines Sho-Cving Effects of Moving Ice. West Coast of 

Greenland, ------------71 

-A Joint Moraine Formed by the Meeting of Two Glaciers, - - 7 2 

-A Fragm'^nt far from Home. Near Glyndon, - - - - - 74 

-An Old Valley in Driftless Area of Minnesota, _ - - . 77 
-St. Peter Sandstone Overlain by Platteville Limestone, Near 

Northtown. Northeast Minneapolis. ------- 78 

Fig. 4 5 — Section in Gravel Pit Showing Stratified Sand Below with Coarse 

Gravel and Boulders above, -------- 79 

10 



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ILLUSTRATIONS 11 

Fig. 45a — Superior National Forest. (1) Falls of Isabella River. (2) 

Kawishiwi River. (3) Gabro Lake, - -- - - -81 

Fig. 46 — Map of Minnesota Showing Distribution of Forest and Prairie. 

(After Upham and Butters.) ------- Facing 83 

Fig. 47 — Road in Itasca State Park Leading from Douglas Lodge to Fores- 
try School, ------------ 82 

Fig. 48 — Second Growth Hardwood on Lake-washed Till, South of Inter- 
national Falls, ----------- 85 

Fig. 49 — Hardwood Forest in Valley of Zumbro River, Southeastern Min- 
nesota, -------------86 

Fig. 50 — Norway Pine Forest, on Sandy Outwash Plain, near Cass Lake, - 88 
Fig. 51 — Birch Thicket on Bear Point, Itasca State Park, - - - - 89 

Fig. 52 — Hardwood Forest Bordering Small Stream. North of Jackson, - 90 
Fig. 53 — Mississippi River as it Leaves Itasca Lake. Pine and Hardwood 
Trees on the Upland bordered by Water Loving Shrubs, and 
these in turn give way to Swamp Sedges, and finally to Water 
Lilies and Reeds, -----------91 

Fig. 54 — A Muskeg Swamp cut through by a Drainage Ditch. Roseau County, 91 
Fig. 55 — Cross Section of a Lake showing Wave-cut Shore (left) and Bog 

Filling (right), ----------- 92 

Fig. 56 — Tamarack Swamp, Itasca County, - - - - - - - -95 

Fig. 57 — Cross River Meandering through a Spruce Swamp, Cook County, 
Fig. 58 — Raised Bog. The Dotted Line shows the Original Land Surface. 

The Bog has grown up around the Spring, ----- ^,8 

Fig. 59 — Sugar Loaf. Near Winona, ---------99 

Fig. 60 — Valley of Rollingstone River, -------- loi 

Fig. 61 — North America in Cretaceous Time, - - - - - - -102 

Fig. 62 — Valleys bordered by Limestone Tablelands near Hampton, - - 103 
Fig. 63 — Profile at Red Wing, ---------- 104 

Fig. 64 — Geologic Map of Minnesota and adjacent region showing Distri- 
bution of the Rock Formations at the Surface, - - - - 106 

Fig. 6 5 — Granite Exposures at Upper Falls on Snake River, Kanabec 

County, - - - - - - - - - - - - -108 

Fig. 66 — Granite Exposures on Rum River, South of Onamia, Mille Lacs 

County, ------------- 10& 

Fig. 67 — Columns showing the General Geologic Scale, ----- no 

Fig. 68 — Granite Outcrop at Meyer's Quarry, near Pierz, Morrison County, 112 
Fig. 69 — Slate Outcrop on Mill Island at Little Falls, Morrison County, - 113 
Fig. 70 — Outcrop of Slate and Quartz-mica Schist, Northeast of Denham, 

Pine County, - - - - - - - - - - - -II4 

Fig. 71 — Sioux Quartzite Outcrop at Pipestone, - - - - - -116 

Fig. 72 — Minnesota Valley at New Ulm, - - - - - - - - lib 

Fig. 73 — Map showing part of Glacial Lake Agassiz, its outlet through 

Minnesota Valley, and Beaches, - - - - - - -122 

Fig. 74 — Beaches of Higher and Lower Stages of Lake Agassiz, - - - 124 
Fig. 75 — Map Showing Southward Drainage of Lakes Agassiz and Duluth, 128 
Fig. 76 — Gravel in Beach of Lake Agassiz, - - - - - - -132 

Fig. 77 — Section through Herman Beach near Herman, ----- 133 

Fig. 78 — Sections of Herman Beach in Logan Township. The beach sand 

and gravel rest on till, - - - - - - - - -133 

Fig. 79 — Profile across Beaches west of Maple Lake, ----- 134 

Fig. 80 — Diagram of Herman and Norcross Beaches near Maple Lake, Polk 

County, showing the multiple character Northward, - - - 136 
Fig. 81 — Diagram showing Progressive Character of Beaches Northward 

near Maple Lake, - - - - - -137 

Fig. 82a — Minnesota Valley above Redwood Falls, West, - - - - 144 

Fig. 82b — Mississippi Valley above Redwood Falls, East, - - - - 145 

Fig. 83 — Valley of Root River, Fillmore County, ------ 149 

Fig. 84 — Itasca Lake Post Office, Itasca State Park, ----- - 150 

Fig. 85 — The Father of Waters, as it leaves Itasca Lake, - - - - 151 

Fig. 86 — The Mississippi a few rods below the Outlet of Itasca Lake, - - 152 
Fig. 87 — The Mississippi cne-half mile below the Outlet of Itasca Lake. 

Residence of M. Heinzelman, -------- 153 



12 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Fig. 8 8 — As It Was. Old Corduroy Road in Itasca State Park, - - - 154 
Fig. 89 — As It Is. Auto Road in Itasca State Park, - - - - - 155 

Fig. 90 — Douglas Lodge, Itasca State Park, - - - - - - - 15^ 

Fig. 91 — Cottages at Douglas Lodge, Itasca State Par iv, - - - - - 157 

Fig. 92 — Arko Lake and Pines, Itasca State Park, ----- 15^ 

i^ig. 1^5 — Wall of Lava Rock at The Dalles, _----._ 157 

Fig. 93 — Lake St. Croix and the Glacial St. Croix River Valley, - - - 160 
Fig. 94 — St. Croix River and Gorge below Taylor's Falls, - - - _ 162 
Fig. 96 — A Pot Hole, ------------ 170 

Fig. 9Y — A Grinder from a Pot Hole, - - - - - - - - -171 

Fig. 98 — View of St. Anthony Falls as seen in 1857, - - - - - 174 

Fig. 99 — Limestone Blocks Left at Foot of Receding Fall of River Warren, 176 
Fig. 100 — Minnehaha Falls, ----------- 18I 

Fig. 100a — Map of St. Anthony Gorge, - - - - - - - - 178 

Fig. 101 — Glacial Valley of St. Louis River, ------- 134 

Fig. 102 — Glacial Lake Duluth, ---------- i85 

Fig. 103 — Terraces Showing the higher levels of Lake Duluth at Lutzen, 

Cook County ------------ 187 

Fig. 104 — Map showing Glacial Lakes Ailkin and Upham, - - - - 190 

Fig. 105 — Dairy Farm on clayey bottom of Lake Upham, - - - - 192 

Fig. 10 6 — Map showing details of Glacial History in Freeborn County, - 196 
Fig. 107 — Map showing the Chains of Lakes in Martin County, - - - 203 
Fig. 108 — Map showing the Iron Ranges of Minnesota, - - - - 2O6 

Fig. 109 — Jasper Peak, ----------- 2O8 

Fig. 110 — The Shenango Mine, ---------- 210 

Fig. Ill — Redwood Falls, Ramsey State Park, - - - - - - 214 

Fig. Ilia- Superior National Forest. (1) Burntside Lake, Ely. (2) Camp 

Van Lac, Burntside Lake. (3) Burntside Lodge, Burntside 

Lake ------------- 21 7 

Fig. 112 — Map showing Soil Districts of Minnesota, - - - - - 218 

F.g. 113 — Cut-over Land rapidly becoming Farms, - - - - - 2 20 

Fig. 114 — Clover on rolling Moraine in Otter Tail County, - - - 221 

1 ig. 11: — Loess-capped Hills in Pipestone County, - . _ . - 223 

Fig. 116 — Loess-covered Driftless Area near Caledonia, - - - - - 22 4 

Fig. 117 — Eroded Upland in Old Gray Drift (Kansan), northeast of 

Zumbrota, ------------ 225 

Fig. 118 — Plain of Old Gray Drift, east of Luverne, - - - - - 226 

Fig. 119 — Moraine of Young Red Drift near Stillwater, - - - - 227 

Fig. 120 — Red Drift Till-plain with forest, near Foley, --..-_ 229 
Fig. 121 — Slope of Coteau des Prairies near Canby. Gray Drift Moraine, 2 31 
Fig. 122 — Homestead on Clayey Moraine in Otter Tail County, - - 240 
Fig. 123— Oats and Corn on Clayey Moraine in Otter Tail County, - - 234 
Fig. 124 — Red Drift Till-plain near Foley, ------- 235 

Fig. 125 — Farm on Clayey Keewatin Drift east of Cook, - - - . 239 
Fig. 126 — Clover on Lake-washed Till south of Baudette and Spooner, - 240 
Fig. 127 — Gray Drift Till-plain in Mahnomen County, ----- 242 

Fig. 128 — Breaking New Land on clayey soil of Glacial Lake Bottom, - - 244 
Fig. 129 — Dairy Herd at Meadowlands Farm, ------ 245 

Fig. 130 — Field of Oats on Keewatin Till-plain in St. Louis County, - - 246 
Fig. 131 — Section in a Gravelly Outwash Plain in Lake County, - - 247 
Fig. 132 — Pioneer Marketing at Cook, --------- 248 

Fig. 133 — Roseau River at Roseau, ---.-_---- 248 

Fig. 134 — Out Doors at Lake Itasca, - - - - - - - - - 2 49 

Fig. 135 — Mille Lacs Lake, ----------- 250 

Fig. 136 — Moonlight on Lake Itasca, --------- 250 

Fig. 137 — Moose in Red Lake, ---------- 251 

Fig. 138 — Beaver Dam, Burntside Lake, -------- 251 

Fig. 139— A Sly Old Fox, ----------- 252 

Fig. 140 — A Covey of Quail, ----------- 252 

Fig. 141 — Wolf Lodge, Lake Minnetonka, ------- 255 

Fig. 142 Duluth. (1) Steamer passing Aerial Bridge. (2) Ore Docks. 

(3) Concrete Grain Elevators, - - - - - - - 256 

Fig. 143 — Canada Goose and Cackling Goose, ------- 257 

Pig. 144 — Snow Goose and Blue Goose, - - - - - - - -257 



ILLUSTRATIOIS^^ 13 

Fig. 145 — Prankliii Gulls, Heron Lake, - - - - - - - - 258 

Fig. 146 — Black Tern and Nest, ------..- 258 

•Fig. 147 — Pied-billed Grebe — Nest Open, - - - - . - - 259 

Fig. 148 — Pied-billed Grebe — Nest Covered. ~ - - - 2 60 

Fig. 149 — Franklin Gulls Following the Plow, - - - - 2 60 

Fig. 150 — Spruce Grouse, - - - - - - - -261 

Fig. 151 — Channel Cat-Fish, - - - - - - 262 

Fig. 152 — Common Buffalo Fish, -----.._- 262 

Fig. 153 — Labrador Whitefish, - - - - - - - . . 262 

Fig. 154 — Browii Trout, - - - - - - - 263 

Pig. 155 — Trout Perch, - - - - - - - - - 263 

Fig. 156 — White Bass, -----.------ 264 



14 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




l^iG. 2. Altitude Map of Minnesota. 



The Story of the North Star State 

CHAPTER I 
THE LANDSCAPE 

Introductory. Hoav many of the readers of this book understand 
what is meant by the words Landscape Geology? Everyone has seen 
a landscape, but we often hear people speak about geology as though 
that meant rocks and stones and minerals and therefore is hard and 
dry. It is true that geology deals with rocks and stones and minerals, 
among other things, and sometimes it is hard and dry. But arithmetic 
and grammar, history and geography, are sometimes ''hard and dry" 
also. It may not be the fault of the subject that it is uninteresting. The 
trouble may be in the way it is taught. 

If, after the reader has studied this book, he finds geology "hard 
and dry," the trouble will not be with the subject, and probably not 
with the reader. If the author has not made the landscape, the fields, 
the roadside, the school grounds, the river, and the lake, more interest- 
ing because we have come to know more about them and to see something 
more in them than mere rocks and stones, sand and water, then it is 
his fault and not that of the subject. 

Meaning of the Landscape. We have all seen a landscape, but have 
we ever thought what the landscape means? Has it ever occurred to you, 
that every hill, every level tract, every valley, every hollow or lake basin, 
has a meaning? We speak of the land surface as the landscape. Has it 
ever occurred to you that this landscape came to be the way you see it 
today through a long series of processes? 

The land surface is not the same today that it was yesterday. To- 
morrow it will be different again from today. The land surface is 
changing all the time. These changes are going on very slowly, to be 
sure, but they nevertheless go on. They have been going on during the 
countless ages of the past, and will continue so long as the earth stands. 

The landscape of Minnesota is the expression of all that has gone 
on since the primitive crust of the earth first appeared above the waters 
of the primeval ocean. The wind and the rain, frost and sunshine, began 
their task of leveling down the landscape as soon as it appeared above 
the sea. 

The land surface — that is all of the earth's crust that is above the 
level of the sea — is being weathered, eroded, worn down by the natural 
action of the elements. One of the most active of the natural processes 

15 



16 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

by which land surfaces are worn away is that of running- water. Other 
agencies also do active work in changing the form of the landscape. 
Sometimes natural agencies also pile up portions of the surface materials 
as well as lower them or wear them away. Wind piles up fragments of 
earth into hills, called dunes. Ice in the form of great glaciers has 
piled up masses of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders into hills, called 
moraines. 

What we see all about us is today's landscape, not yesterday's nor 
tomorrow's. It must not be thought there is any very abrupt or notice- 
able change from day to day, but because one cannot see the change 
from day to day does not alter the fact that change is going on. Yester- 
day and tomorrow in a geologic sense are but relative terms. "One day 
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 

The Types of Hills. At first glance at the landscape of Minnesota 
it may seem as though there is not much system, that the hills and 
hollows, plains, lakes, and marshes are distributed with no particular 
system or order. A little study, however, will soon show that this is 
not the case; that the landscape is the result of an orderly, although 
complicated, system of processes, and these processes have been going 
on for long ages. However, if we go back to inquire into the causes 
that have worked, the problem will not be as difficult as may at first 
appear. And, indeed, the reader may come to the conclusion that the 
history of the making of Minnesota's landscape before men appeared 
upon the earth is (juite as interesting as the history of what has trans- 
pired since man came upon the scene. 

Minnesota is not what would be called a hilly state, yet it has 
about all the kinds of hills there are. The hills of Minnesota may be 
divided into the following classes: (a) Hills of erosion, or those that 
have been formed by running water; (b) Hills of glacial deposit, masses 
of earth materials piled together by moving ice; (c) Hills of glacial 
erosion, those that have been carved out of the landscape by the digging 
and scooping agency of nioving ice; (d) Hills of wind-blown sand; (e) 
Loess hills, masses of fine grained material borne by the wind and de- 
posited as dust; (f) Hills of uplift, higher parts of the crust of the 
earth pushed up by forces within the earth; (g) Volcanic hills, formed 
by violent explosion or upheaval from within the earth. 

These seven types include the more important kinds of hills that 
exist anywhere in the world. The processes by which these hills have 
been formed are the processes by which hills have been formed since 
the beginning of the world. 

Hills of Erosion. The side of a valley is a hill. If valleys are 
close togelhei-, tiiey are parted or separated by hills. When it rains 



THE LANDSCAPE 



17 



on the land, water runs down the hillsides and down the valleys. That 
is how the valleys and hills, that is, hills of erosion, are made. Everyone 
has seen how a plowed field, a road grade, or a bank of earth is torn 
up, washed out, gullied, or ditched by storms. After many storms a 
ditch may grow to be a larger gulch. That is how such erosion valleys 
as are found in southeastern Minnesota came to be. The difference 
between the valleys in southeastern Minnesota and the gullies or gulches 
in the fields, is that the former have been a good deal longer in the 
making, and they are therefore larger. 

Hills of erosion have been formed by running water. They are 
generally parts of a plain which have not yet been removed by erosion 
of streams. Such are the hills in southeastern Minnesota. In this part 
of the state the plain has been cut into by streams. The landscape is no 
long-er a smooth plain, but is intersected by many deep valleys along the 
streams. 

Go down one of these valleys and it will be observed that rock 
layers or strata nearly horizontal in position frequently extend along 




Fig. 3. Valley of the Mississippi at Minnesota City. 

the hillsides. When wells are dug or bored, these same layers are found 
to underlie the hills. These rock layers or strata once extended across 
the valle^^s from one side to the other. There were then no valleys. 
Once the tops of the hills on either side of the valley were connected by 
a plain. Rain water gathered into streams and the streams carved 
away the earth materials. This valley is a valley of erosion, and the 
hills on either side are hills of erosion. In the course of time, if the 
order of Nature is not interrupted by some great earth change, these 
hills will be all washed down and destroyed by the same process that 
formed them. In other words, ultimately this landscape will be reduced 



18 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

to a plain. The high plain is being cut down to a lower plain, and 
until that work is completed, there will be hills. 




Fig. 4. A Fragment of Topography in the Lake Park Region. 

The slopes that form the sides of the valleys, that is, the hillsides, 
are more or less covered with a mantle of soil. Soil is made up of the 



THE LANDSCAPE 19 

broken fragments of the rock of which the hills are composed. In other 
words, the plain was once rock. Its surface has crumbled into soil. It 
has been cut into by streams because the rain fell on the plain more 
rapidly than it could soak into the soil, hence it had to run off. In run- 
ning off it carried particles of soil and rock with it. By and by ail the 
hills will have been carried away particle by particle. This then will be a 
new plain at a lower level than the old plain. The sea may break in 
over it. If, in the lapse of ages, that plain is raised by some great 
change of the earth, the erosion of hills will begin again just as it was 
begun this time. 

A glance at the map of southeastern Minnesota shows that this 
region is well drained. It is the oldest part of the landscape of Minne- 
sota, but it is not the oldest land of Minnesota in point of years or ages. 
Streams have worked back from the Mississippi until the whole plain 
is marked by valleys. The ridge road from Winona to LaCrosse winds 
to and fro in the effort to keep up on the surface of the old plain. On 
this undulating prairie surface there are few stones. Descend by one 
of the intersecting roads into one of the valleys and it will be observed 
that there are many stones. Sometimes after a heavy spring rain the 
road may be in places washed so that it is a pavement of stones. These 
are the harder fragments of rock that have fallen down from the hill- 
sides. Ledges of rock project from the hillsides. These may be under- 
mined by the removal of other softer rocks beneath, and, aided by frost, 
the fragments break off and fall down as stone. 

Hills of Glacial Deposit. Throughout a large district of central and 
southern Minnesota occur hills of variable size and of very distinctive 
character. They differ entirely in appearance from the hills in south- 
eastern Minnesota. There is no general uniformity in their height. 
They are often not separated by valleys, but rather by hollows without 
outlets. They are sometimes stony in character, the stones being of 
great variety and nearly all rounded in form. Rocks in horizontal 
layers or strata never occur in these hills. They are mounds or piles 
of earth carried, or '^ drifted," by glaciers from Canada, and thrown 
down wherever the end of the glaciers happened to be at different times. 

The ''drift" landscape is often very rough and irregular. The hills 
vary in size from little knolls a few feet in height to massive hills 
150 feet, or more, in height. Their sides are often steep, and the 
tops always rounded in outline. They are made up of clay, sand, 
gravel, cobbles, and boulders. Some of them are almost entirely made 
up of clay with few stones, and again they are composed of mixed 
clay and boulders. Frequently they are sources from which gravel and 
sand for road building and other purposes are obtained. Many times 



20 



THE STORY OF THE KORTH STAR STATE 



the sands and gravels of which the hills are made np are distributed in 
beautiful layers, the material having been assorted by water when they 
were laid down. 

The landscape in these hilly regions in some districts is strewn with 
larger and smaller stones or boulders. In other localities there are very 
few large stones. The stones, when broken, are many times seen to be* 
made up of beautiful crystals. If fragments from these stony hills aj e 



fi«!iii'' 




Fi( 



Second (Jrowth Norway l*ine on Stony Morainic Kidge. (ass Connty. 



compared with bed-i'ock outcrops in the vicinity, they are found to be 
totally different in kind from rocks of the outcropping ledges. It i; 
worthy of note, however, that the rock ledges which are of the sanu^ 
kind as these boulders are located, in a general Avay, to the northward 
of the boulders. It is frequently observed mIso that where there is an 
outcrop of some hard rock, boulders will be seen of the same kind ol' 
rock southward from this outcrop. This would seem to suggest that 
the boulders have been broken off from these ledges and moved south- 
ward. And, in fact, this is what has happened. 



THE LANDSCAPE 2x 

.These boulders and also the sand and gravel grains are of many 
kinds. Granite, (juartzite, hornblende, limestone, porphyry, slate, and 
many other rocks and minerals, the names of which would be hard and 
too numerous to mention, are found mixed in the most complete confusion. 

These field observations suggest that there has at some time in the 
history of the past been a great stirring and mixing process by which 
the surface of the landscape lias been changed and modified. These 
rocks are called drift rocks, and the hills are known as drift hills, 
because they have been moved or drifted to their present location from 
other places. 

Scattered among these knoblike hills are hollows, sometimes deep 
and kettle-like, sometimes like bioad fiat pans. These hollows may or 
may not contain water. Many thousands of Minnesota's most beautiful 
and attractive lakes are in hollows or basins of this character, and they 
are lakes because more water gathers in them than evaporates. Many 
of these lakes and ponds are without outlet. Some overflow all the 
time, others only at certain seasons. 

In southeastern Minnesota, where the hills have been formed by 
erosion of running water, all the valleys or hollows have outlets. There 
are no lakes. The rocks are of one kind, and are in definite layers or 
strata. Among morainic hills, as in the Park Region, on the other hand, 
the hollow^s are Avithout drainage outlets, and lakes are everywhere. 
The stones are of every variety known in regions to the northward; they 
are in broken fragments always Avith their corners rounded and dis- 
tributed Avith every degree of irregularity. In southeastern Minnesota 
the hills are carved out of the landscape by running w^ater ; in the Park 
Region the hills have been dumped upon the landscape by ice in promis- 
cuous confusion. 

Hills of Glacial Erosion. Another class of hills marks the landscape 
of Minnesota, particularly in the northeastern portion of the State. 
These hills, AAdiile related to the "dumped" hills just described, differ 
from them in that the hills are made of rock fixed in position and 
generally of one kind of rock. These contrast somcAvhat sharply with 
the hills of glacial deposit just described. Hills of this character occur 
notably in the vicinity of Carlton in Carlton County, near the city of 
Duluth, in the neighborhood of Vermilion in St. Louis County, also in 
the country about Rainy Lake. 

These hills are generally composed of hard rock. Hills of this 
character are without erosion valleys betAveen them. Their surfaces are 
rounded and smooth, and such hills are like gigantic rounded boulders, 
of one kind of rock, but each is in position just AA^here the rock was 



22 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



before the ice sheet passed over. Many of them are erosion hills re-shaped 
by the rubbing which the glaciers gave them. 

Hills of glacial erosion are generally composed of hard rock, because 
otherwise they would not have withstood the wearing, breaking, and 
crushing poAver of the great ice sheet. Irregular surfaces generally 
when passed over by the ice sheet tended to be leveled down. The 
harder the rock over which the ice passed the more stoutly it withstood 
the wearing action of the ice. However, when a harder place in the 
rock floor was encountered, the less hard rocks surrounding w^ould nat- 
urally give way more readily, and this would tend to cause a hard 
hummock or even a hill to remain. As the ice of the glacier continued 
to move, hard hills became obstacles to the ice. Ice in the form of 
glaciers moving in great masses develops currents in passing obstacles, 
something after the fashion of rivers. Glacier ice will move up over 
an obstacle when it can do so and keep its surface level, as in the case 





Fig. G. Shores and Islands of A'ermilion Lake. 



of a stream of water. When the movement of the ice is obstructed by 
obstacles, it plows out a hole, something as water passing over a cataract 
excavates a hole in the river bed. The currents of ice formed as it 
moves around an obstacle dig harder, thus hollows between or near the 
obstructions are formed, and the buckling on the near or ''stoss" side 
of a hill causes increased erosion on that side. Thus rock basins and 
rock hills of erosion were formed. 

Hills of Wind Blown Sand. The wind is sometimes an active agent 
in shaping the landscape forms. Sand and dust borne by the wind and 



THE LANDSCAPE 23 

drifted into piles form dunes. Dune topography inay be recognized 
sometimes in places Avhere the sand no longer drifts with the wind. 
North of Minneapolis and St. Paul are tracts of typical sand dunes, 
also north of Brainerd, east of Fort Ripley, south of Little Falls, south- 
east of Richardson, and at Zimmerman. The sands that make up those 
dune areas came from the flood plain of the Mississippi while this river 
was flooded by water from melting glaciers. The glaciers are gone, the 
river is quiet, and the dunes are no longer active owing to the growth 
of vegetation which forms a covering sufficient to hold the surface sand 
and dust in place. 

Active dunes are found in a few places in Minnesota, as east of 
Fridley and Coon Creek, and northward along the Great Northern 
Railway, and in two places north of Elk River. In these open or active 
dune tracts the sand grains creep with the wind and form the char- 
acteristic hills and sinks which distinguish a wind-blown landscape. 
"'Active" sand dunes are literally moving hills. The hills do not move 
bodily, but they progress slowly in the direction of the prevailing wind. 
The sand grains may be rolled, or they may be taken up bodily by the 
wind and carried and deposited. The size of particles moved depends 
upon the velocity of the wind. The formation of dunes, however, does 
not altogether depend upon the sand grains being taken up by the wind. 
Just as in stream currents pebbles are rolled on the stream bed, so sand 
grains that are too large to be lifted bodily and carried may be rolled 
by the force of the wind. The grains thus carried, or rolled up the 
windward slope, stop on the lee side. Thus active dunes move in the 
direction of the prevailing wind. 

There are two general types of dunes, those that are of fine, dusty 
sand, and those that are of coarser material. Minnesota dunes are 
mostly of the dusty variety. The dust holds moisture, hence such dunes 
are fertile. A few only, in Minnesota, are coarse and barren. 

Active dunes are without soil or grass upon them. If grass and 
bushes once creep up over a dune, it is thenceforth a dead one. Dust 
gathers in the grass and soil is formed, and unless fire or drouth again 
destroys the vegetation, the sand and dust cannot move. If the farmer 
carelessly plows up the land where there is dune topography, and lets 
the fall and spring vrinds whip the surface, clouds of dust fly off while 
the coarser sands begin to pile up into windrows, the beginnings of 
dunes. Nearly all of the Minnesota dunes were dead before settlers 
came here, and it is a good idea to keep them dead. 

The dune sands of the counties of Anoka, Isanti, Sherburne, Benton, 
Morrison, Crow Wing, Chisago, and Washington came from the flood 
plains of glacial rivers which were formed by the waters from the 



24 THE STORY OF THE XORTH STAR STATE 

melting glaciers. The glaciers have long since melted away, the rivers 
have become smaller modern streams or have degenerated into sloughs. 
The dunes Avere formed before vegetation had covered the landscape. 
The old dune topography remains, but the dunes are mostly ''dead'' 
except where the covering of vegetation has been destroyed. 

Loess Hills. A peculiar type of hills occurs in southern Minnesota 
known as loess hills. These hills are thought to have been formed from 
dust carried by the winds, which settled in grass and woods until a 
thick coating was formed. Loess hills are Avell developed south of Red 
Wing and Cannon Falls to Goodhue and Zumbro Falls; about Plainview 
and east of Rochester; about Lewiston, Harmony, Canton, and east of 
Caledonia ; also in the southwestern corner of the State in Rock County, 
south and west of Luverne and about Manley and Hills, and extending 
into South Dakota and loAva. The hills are spoken of as loess hills, 
although the hills are generally not made of loess, but only capped or 
covered by it. 

The material known as loess is a grey, i)orous, soft earth, and 
generally caps the hills where it occurs. Water soaks into this material 
readily. The slopes of the loess hills are smooth and stoneless. As in 
case of the Minnesota dunes, the loess is an old deposit. Already in 
Minnesota rains have leached the soluble parts of this fine porous dust 
soil, and a clayey soil has developed upon the surface. On clay soils 
water collects but does not (|uickly soak into the soil so that run-off 
and erosion becomes more active than on a new loess surface. Thus as 
time goes on these peculiar hills tend to lose their original character 
because the caps of loess on the hills have become clayey and have 
begun to wash down the slopes. W^here loess occurs in thick beds and 
streams cut into it, erosion goes on very rapidly owing to the softness 
of this material, and once a cutting stream gets started in it, it cuts 
down with great rapidity. 

Volcanic Hills and Hills of Uplift. \\)lcanic hills, and hills formed 
by the upward thrust of the crust of the earth, occur in northeastern 
Minnesota. The rugged, rocky hills in the western part of the city of 
Duluth were formed by volcanic outburst or exi)losion from the deeper 
parts of the earth. The bare rocky hills between West Duluth and 
Carlton and northward to Scanlon are also of this character. The hard 
rocks of which these hills are formed are known as igneous rocks 
(igneous from a Latin word meaning fire). The rocks were formed from 
highly heated masses of rock materials that were forced out from the 
earth's interior. Hills in Cook County arc of this character also. 

On the othei- hand, the Mesal)i and N'ermilion Ranges in St. Louis 
Coiintv and the Ca\'una Ranuc in Crow Winu' Connt\- are hills which 



THE LAXDSCAPE 25 

were formed by uptliriist of ''solid"" portions of the earth's crust. The 
northeast part of what is now Minnesota was among the earliest parts 
of the North American continent to be formed. It is a part of the first 
formed land surface in the world. These hills have been so much worn 
down by erosion and by weathering and by the grinding of the great 
continental glaciers which have passed over them, that they are now 
mere remnants of what have been vastly larger hills or mountain 
ranges. 

The surface of northeastern Minnesota includes the highest points 
in the State. In Cook County some hills rise to 2,200 feet above sea 
level, or 1,600 feet above Lake Superior. This high land is rocky and 
stony, that is, the hills are of bed-rock strcAvn with stone fragments. 
The rock ribs of the hills are either bare or sparsely covered with 
glacial boulders. This rocky and stony highland extends across Lake 
Count}" into St. Louis County. Avhere it divides. One ''range" extends 
north of Vermilion Lake nearly to International Falls. Another range 
runs south of Vermilion Lake, westward to Grand Rapids. Another 
runs to Duluth and Carlton parallel to the shore of Lake Superior. This 
last is a rock ridge with the stony glacial hig-hland moraine on its top. 
Between these rocky and stony ranges which run out like fingers from 
the northeastern point of Minnesota, there are flat, wide valleys. It is 
interesting to note that the eastern end of ancient Lake Agassiz, the 
lake which occupied the basin of the Red River Valley, occupied the 
flat basin of Little Fork River between the Vermilion and Mesabi Ranges. 
The valley of the St. Louis down to Brookston is broad flat, and mostly 
svv'ampy. It includes the old glacial Lake Upham Basin. 

Plains. In the northwestern part of the State, in western Kittson, 
Marshall, Pennington, Polk, Norman, and Clay Counties, the landscape 
appears to the eye almost perfectly flat. Broad level reaches extend 
away until earth and sky meet in a level horizon. 

This plain or prairie was the floor of a great body of water. This 
Red River Valley plain, famous for its wheat fields, was formed by the 
deposition of finely broken rock or mud on the bottom of a great 
glacial lake. 

Extending across Beltrami and Koochiching Counties is a great wet 
plain known as the Beltrami Swamp. Other wet plains or swamps 
occur, but this is the most extensive plain of this kind in the State. 
These wet areas are classified as bogs, muskegs, swamps, and marshes. 
(See Chap. VIII.) 

Prairies. The most wide-spread and important type of plain in 
Minnesota is that commonly called ''prairie."' The ''prairies"' of Min- 
nesota as dinstinguished from lands of similar character on which trees 



26 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



grow naturally (forests) will be considered in another place (Chap. VII). 
The broadly rolling or undulating plains that make up a great part of 
southern and central Minnesota owe their character to the action of 
the great ice sheets. The prairies, as also much of the gently rolling 
forested territory, are what is called ground moraine. The soil and 
subsoil to a depth of many feet is a deposit made by the great ice sheets. 
To the action of ice, as we shall presently see, the landscape forms of 
Minnesota are largely due. 

Glacial Valleys. The land surface of the State is still further 
marked by valleys that are long, wide, and deep, and that seem to 
bear no direct relation to any modern streams. Many times these valleys 
are occupied by streams, but generally these streams are small in 
comparison with the size of the valleys they occupy and they are often 
very sluggish, and frequently do not erode their bottoms or banks. 
It is plain that these valleys were not made by the streams that today 
occupy them. 

Sometimes lakes lie in these valleys. The valleys and the lakes 
have no relation to modern drainage. They are relics of an earlier age. 
The agency that caused them has ceased to be. The waters that came 
from the melting of the great ice sheets that once lay over the landscape 
had to escape somewhere, and these long, often broad and deep valleys, 
which are are a marked feature of the landscape, tell of the great floods 
of water that once flowed across the land. 

Rocky Lands. Hills of glacial erosion have been referred to before. 
These are of such importance in northeastern Minnesota that a further 
word may be said about them here. 




m^*%: 



**^' 



Flu. 



A Fertile Valley North of Vermilion Lake at llalf-way House. 



THE LANDSCAPE 27 

A tract of rough, rocky land extending across Cook, Lake, and St. 
Louis Counties includes hills of glacial erosion, but many of the rocky 
hills are remnants of larger hills and of mountains which have been 
worn down by weathering and by the action of great glaciers which 
have passed over them. The surface of the landscape is naked rock 
over considerable areas, with hollows and lakes, swamps, and meadows 
interspersed. Much of the landscape is a desolate, rocky waste. Bould- 
ers of huge size are strewn in wild profusion. Myriad lakes in which 
fish abound are often without outlets. The country is almost without 
drainage. 

The rock formations are the oldest in the State and in the world, 
yet the landscape is young. Drainage has hardly developed beyond 
the stage of infancy. Except the region bordering the north shore of 
Lake Superior, where streams descend from the highland to the lake 
basin some hundreds of feet below, the region is undrained. Hundreds 
of lakes lie in basins that have been hewed out of the hard rock floor. 
One of the oldest mountain ranges in the world was here. There remains 
the worn down remnants of mountains and hills which were formed by 
volcanic outburst or broad crustal upheaval of the earth. Weathering 
of the rocks has been going on here since the world began, and great 
glaciers have rasped and worn and polished the hills that remain. 

Why this, the oldest land in the United States and the world, should 
be one of the youngest landscapes, invites to a study of the great 
agency, ice, by Avhich the most profound changes that have affected any 
land have been wrought. This great story will be studied in later 
chapters and explanation of some of these wonderful things in this 
wonderful land will be attempted. 

Drainage. A glance at any good map of Minnesota reveals at once 
some very remarkable features about the land surface. The most casual 
study of the map reveals that while the State has many rivers, yet much 
of the land is not drained. A closer study shows that many rivers and 
streams which are themselves small and sluggish, occupy valleys often 
of immense size. Lakes lie close upon the banks of streams, yet the lakes 
are not drained. Lakes are not infrequently connected by streams during 
seasons of high water, and separated by swamps or marshes the remainder 
of the year. Water may flow through a channel from one lake or depres- 
sion to another at one season, and in the reverse direction at another. A 
stream may take its origin in a higher plain and flow away and disappear 
upon or in a swamp or marsh. A river may flow in a given direction for 
many miles, then make an abrupt turn, flow in a widely different direction, 
perhaps doubling back upon its own course. The St. Louis River meanders 
through a marsh for many miles and then suddenly (at Floodwood) 



28 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

plunges down into Lake Superior; the Mustinka Kiver flows in an 
eccentric course, going first due south, then later, as the Bois des Sioux, 
due north; Rum River starts south from Mille Lacs Lake, then turns 
abruptly east and north away from its proper course to the Mississippi 
via the St. Francis and Elk Rivers; Snake River, after starting south 




Fig. 8. Garden Plot of Anthony Gasco on Lake Harriet, Lake County. 

for Rice Lake and the Seven-mile Swamp to Rum River, runs away to 
the St. Croix; Straight River is the crookedest of all (it was named for 
a Mr. Straight) ; the Zumbro and its branches form a complicated sys- 
tem in getting to the Mississippi. The great Mississippi River is said 
to have its source in Itasca Lake, yet beyond Itasca Lake are Lake Desoto 
and others, and beyond these the ultimate source of the river is lost in 
a labyrinth of marshes and swamps so that the real source or beginning 
of the Father of Waters may not even in this day of geographic know! 
edge be said to be known. 

Covering an area of many hundreds of square miles in Beltrami and 
Koochiching Counties, the great Beltrami Swamp lies high above the 
Rainy River to the north and the great Red River of the North to the west, 
yet this vast area is a swamp or marsh because of lack of drainage. In 
other words, the water fails to flow away down hill. *Red Lake, the larg- 
est body of water wholly within tlio State of Minnesota, lies at an eleva- 
tion of 110 feet above Rainy River, less than 40 miles to the north, and 
570 feet above the level of Lake Superior, yet this great body of water 
has no outlet that can in any proper sense be said to drain it. 

(*Red Lake 1,174.5 feet above sea level. Lake Superior G02 feet. Lake of the 
Woods 1,0G1.3 feet.) 



THE LANDSCAPE 29 

Rainy River is little more than a greatly elongated lake, its waters 
reaching almost by a continuous channel to Lake Superior on the east and 
yet flowing west into Lake of the Woods and Lake Winnipeg. It would 
be possible to travel in a canoe from one of these great bodies of water 
to another. It Avould be possible to travel by canoe from Lake Winnipeg 
to Lake Superior. No argument is needed to show that this is in no real 
sense a drainage stream. It is a great elongated basin filled with water. 

These remarkable things are not the result of accident. Nature's 
processes are not accidental. The explanation of things about the earth 
makes up the science of geology. The history of the changes by which 
these things have come about weaves into a great story. This is the pur- 
pose of this book. Do not be frightened lest the history should be hard 
and dr^^ If it is hard and dry it is the fault of those who tell the story, 
not of the story its(^lf. 



CHAPTER II 
HOW A RIVER BEGINS 

Hills and Valleys. Every one who reads these pages has seen a val- 
ley, and also what may be called hills. Maybe the valley was only a 
ditch or small coulee on the prairie and the hills only little banks one or 
two feet high. But the importance of things is not always measured by 
their size. Maybe you have been where there are great rugged hills and 
broad, deep valleys. Whoever has seen hills has also seen valleys. Have 
you ever thought that there might be a necessary relation between the 
hills and the valleys ? Perhaps you have been accustomed to thinking of 
the earth as "made" in the beginning with oceans and continents and 
mountains, with plains and rivers of water flowing through them, and 
have never questioned but that these have always been so. But a little 
observation and reflection at once teaches that this is not so, for you have 
not failed to see that the river is constantly changing the land, — a little 
soil is being washed into the valley from the banks along its sides with 
every rain and this is carried down the stream. Streams transport mate- 
rials by carrying them or shoving and rolling them along their bottoms. 

Perhaps you have watched the sand and pebbles creeping down 
stream on a gravelly bottom, and wondered how long this process has 
been going on, and when it was that soil and sand began to be carried 
down stream. And then perhaps you wondered if the stream would 
ever stop carrying away the soil and sand toward the ocean. By and by 
you began to think that this carrying away process must have begun as 
soon as there was any land on which rain fell ; and so also you concluded 
that this constant wearing away of the land, called erosion, will keep 
on as long as there is any land left above the level of the sea. It occurs 
to you that likely this has been going on ever since the beginning of 
things and you perhaps begin to wonder if the land will not all be car- 
ried away in time and you wonder if there has not been more land here 
sometime which has been carried away. When you think that "the 
beginning" was a good while ago you are forced to conclude that a 
good deal of land has been carried away. And when you think that 
the land which is nearest the rivers is the first to be carried away, and 
that the hills and higher lands are but the parts which are farther away 
and have not yet been carried away, you see that the river or running 
strenm is the agent which is doing the work of carving and fashioning 
tlie landscape. 

30 



HOW A RIVER BEGINS 31 

The river is water seeking its level. The rains loosen the soil on 
the banks of streams so that it, too, seeks a lower level, or falls. The 
energy of the sun causes water to evaporate and rise as vapor. This 
forms the clouds, and the clouds are blown by the winds and carried 
over the land. Then they fall as rain and again form rivers. Then 
the rivers, as we have seen, flow off the land and carry with them the 
soil or fine parts of the earth, the materials of which the hills are made. 
So long as the sun furnishes heat the waters will be evaporated, and 
clouds will be formed, and rains will fall upon the earth, and rivers 
will flow into the seas. And so the endless cycle goes on, has been 
going on through the long aeons of the past, and will continue to go on 
through the lapse of ages to come. And so the continents are being 
gradually worn down and carried into the seas. The "everlasting hills" 
are not everlasting. They tarry but a day when time is measured in 
geologic cycles. In truth, "one day is with the Creator as a thousand 
years, and a thousand years as one day." The little rivulet which runs 
by the school-house playground or along the roadside is doing the same 
kind of work in carrying away the land to the ocean as the river, only on 
a smaller scale. But it is only a (juestion of time till the level prairies will 
give way to the hilly landscape, and finally the hills will yield to the 
constant wearing of the streams. When the landscape has been thus 
worn away so that the land is but little higher than the ocean level, then 
it is said to have reached its base-level of erosion. 

Beginnings of a Landscape. If a new continent were imagined to 
arise out of the ocean, upon which were no rivers, no valleys or hills, 
its surface sloping uniformly to the sea, how would rivers get started? 
It must be that they would form in some way, for there are rivers or 
streams on all continents where rain falls. All the water there is on the 
land in lakes or streams or in the soil comes from the rain which falls 
upon the land. A large part of the rain water percolates into the soil 
and rocks of the earth. Some of it collects in low places and forms 
lakes, pools, and marshes. From these a good deal evaporates and goes 
into the air to form clouds again. 

Now, where will a river have its beginning? Where will a definite 
stream channel first appear? Will it start from the interior and flow 
toward the sea? What will start it? Does any more water fall on the 
land in the interior than nearer the sea? Since the land is higher than 
the sea, the land waters will tend to move toward the sea. Where are 
the waters which will reach the sea first? It is plain, the waters nearest 
the sea. And since moving water always cuts a channel, or erodes the 
land over which it flows, the first soil to be carried to the ocean and 
deposited on its bottom as sediment Avill be the soil which was at the 



32 



THE 8 TORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



margin, or edge of the land, and the beginning of a channel or valley 
will be at the edge of the land. The next water to get to the sea will 
be that which fell on the land neai- to the edge but a little farther inland. 
Then that from a little farther inland still, and so on, till finall}^ the 
water from the interior will get down to the shore. 

But where now has the valley been cut most? Where is the largest 
part of the river? Wliere did tlie river begin? 



H 


& 


F 


L 





c 


3 


J\ 


"^^ 








~N 




v. 


_^v^ 


V. \ 



Fig. 9. Diagram Showing How a Valley Begins at its Own Mouth. 

If we indicate a series of small areas extending from the seashore 
toward the inland by the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, the waters which 
fall upon a will be the first to reach the sea ; those which fall upon b will 
be next, taking advantage in their course of the channel made by the 
waters of a; those falling upon c will be the next, and these will go 
down by the channel made by a and b; and d will in turn reach the sea 
coursing" down the channel made by a, b, and c, making the channel deeper 
and wider by erosion ; and at length e, f, g and h will reach the sea. 

Let us now compare one part of the valley with another from a to 
h. How do the amounts of water Avhich have gone over each area com- 
pare? Suppose we say the water which falls upon one area is one volume. 
Then if the whole length of the valley is the distance from a to h, and if 
we suppose all the water which falls on each area to go down the valley, 
the water which passes over a will be seven times as much as passes over 
g", that which passes over b will be six times as much as passes over g, nve 
times as much over c as over g, and so on, while from h will pass only the 
water which falls upon that area. 

Where there is the most water, other things being e((ual, there is 
the greatest erosion. Where then has the greatest channel been formed? 
And where is the river largest? And finally, where does the valley of a 
river begin, in the interior of the continent or at its own mouth ? 

Let us now think of the series of areas, a, b, c, d, etc., as a thousand, 
and the extent of each area to be large. From the farthest and highest 
part of the continent the waters may be thought of as a long time in 
reaching the sea. There will be then a broad and deep valley nearer the 
sea, and it will be smaller and smaller as we go inland, and on the thou- 



HOW A RIVER BEGINS , 33 

sandth area, or the summit of the continent, it will be only a place where 
rain falls, with hardly a beginning of a coulee. 

Let us now go out upon the level prairies and look at the coulees and 
see what we can observe of the workings of a river system. Let us see 
if we can find any examples of what we have just been studying. If we 
select a day when it has been raining for some time so that the land is 
well covered with water, we shall be able to see in reality what we have 
been seeing in imagination. Here on the prairie, cutting through level 
wheat fields, is a coulee, a little valley having steep sides, growing wider 
down stream and narrower up stream, its sides becoming less steep to- 
wards the mouth and more steep towards its head. In the bottom of this 
trough or notch in the prairie trickles a tiny stream. Can it be that 
this stream has carried away the earth which once occupied the space 
where is now the trough or coulee % Strewn along the bottom are boulders, 
sand, and gravel, the heavier masses which could not so easily be carried 
away by the waters and which were in the soil or earth which has been 
carried away. If we go out upon the land some distance from the coulee 
and look across it we shall see that the whole trough of the young valley 
is below the level of the surrounding country. On the level prairies of 
the Red Eiver Valley you could imagine a great board or plank to extend 
across from the prairie on one side to the prairie on the other. The Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado River is but a great coulee cut down by the 
river deep into the plain. The materials of which the great Colorado 
plateau is made are of such kind that the moving waters cut it away 
rapidly, and the walls on either side are steep and high. Canj^on is 
another name for a young valley. 

Let us now go along the bank of the coulee and see if we can dis- 
cover how the valley got started. All about upon the level prairie we 
see water standing in sheets from recent heavy rains. If we ask ourselves 
if the prairie will by and by be dry again we shall certainly answer that 
it will, for it has often been very wet before and has become dry again. 
Where did the water go? It soaked into the ground, or a part of it 
did, and some of it evaporated, and went to help make clouds. But how 
about the water which was near by the edge of the coulee? Some of it 
fell down the side into the trough carrying with it always some soil. If 
it chanced that there was a depression or lower place in the prairie, and 
there always are such places, this hollow was filled with water, and if the 
low place is so near the coulee that its waters break over the edge and fall 
down the side, or if a little rivulet on the bank of the coulee should cut 
back into the edge of the little "lake" and tap it, then its water would be 
drained. But in falling down the side of the coulee the water cuts a little 
channel, and when it rains again the water which falls in this hollow, or 



34 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

iake, will run into the valley through the little channel formed before, 
cutting this deeper. If this depression were a large one the little channel 
would become a feeder to the larger stream which made the valley, and it 
would then be called a tributary to the valley. 

If we go down the course of the coulee to see where it ends we shall 
see that it discharges into a larger stream, or maybe runs into a lake. If 
it joins a larger stream then it is itself a tributary to the larger stream. 

How then did the coulee or young valley get started? In just the 
same way as the branch or tributary, for the coulee is only a branch of 
a larger stream. How does a coulee or valley increase its length ? If you 
watch a little rivulet by the roadside when it is raining hard you will 
see that the head of the little stream pushes back toward the land as 
the water from the land falls over into the little valley. The stream grows 
longer by pushing its head back into the land and forming a little valley 
as it goes. 

After this fashion have rivers been developing since time began. Not 
that this is the way by which our rivers have been formed ; in fact it is 
not. It is the way streams would develop if not disturbed by other agen- 
cies. 

An "old" landscape is one upon which streams have become fully 
established, after the manner just described, and which is well drained. 
On such a landscape the lower courses of the valleys are deep and broad, 
and the streams meander over wide flat bottoms. Further up stream the 
valleys are more narrow, and a cross-section of the valley is more V- 
shaped. Where the land is all well drained the hills are rounded on their 
tops, and are generally lower than the original land surface. Farther up 
stream the hills tend to have flat tops, and they may reach to the height 
of the original plain. Such landscapes are seen in southeastern Minnesota. 

The land of Minnesota has not remained constantly above sea level 
since dry land first appeared. Where were dry lands the seas have come in 
and new deposits of sand and mud have been laid down over the old 
land surfaces. 

But what has affected the landscape of Minnesota most noticeably 
so far as we are directly concerned has been the passing over the land 
surface of great glaciers by which the drainage systems have been de- 
stroyed and the landscape again made young. New water courses have 
been thrust upon the landscape by the flood waters which came from the 
melting ice. Upon most of the landscape of Minnesota drainage systems 
have not become established since the great ice sheets destroyed the for- 
mer drainage. Most of the streams are not drainage streams at all, but 
are elongated pools often occupying large valleys that were made by the 
flood waters from the melting ice sheets. 



HOW A RIVER BEGINS 35 

Thus while the processes just described have been in operation since 
dry land first appeared above the primeval oceans, and while these are 
the processes by which drainage streams do develop today, and have al- 
ways developed, yet we shall see that most of our streams are not drainage 
streams in any proper sense of the term, but are modern streams following 
in old-established courses that were developed under a totally different 
set of conditions from those that prevail today. The processes are going 
on today, as they have been going on from "the beginning/' Most of 
the landscape of Minnesota is young. It is not drained. There are many 
rivers and streams that merely meander over the bottoms of ready-made 
valleys. They do not drain the land. In time the land will all be drained, 
■ — unless something interrupts the process. 



CHAPTER HI 
THE WORK OF LAND ICE 

Conditions Under Which Glaciers Form. Suppose more snow should 
fall upon the land than melts. What would happen? What if this con- 
dition should continue for many years and centuries? If more snow kept 
coming every winter and the depth of snow became greater year by year, 
after time enough (and time is long in geologic history), we could imagine 
the earth buried underneath a great mantle of snow and ice many feet in 
thickness, and indeed many rods in thickness, becoming great enough 
even to be expressed in terms of miles. 

What would be the effect upon objects upon the surface of the earth 
if the snow became many hundreds of feet in depth all over the landscape? 




Fig. 10. Showing Formation of Moraine and Stratification of the Ice. 
Photograph by Prof. T. C. Chamherlin. 



What must result from such a condition may be observed on high moun- 
tains above the snow line. Snow gathers until of its own weight it moves 
outward from the center of accumulation. Such a moving mass of snow 
and ice is calked a glacier. 



THE WORK OF LAND ICE 37 

The condition for the formation of glaciers is that more snows falls 
than melts. The behavior of snow and ice in glaciers can be studied by 
direct observation in Switzerland, Italy, Norway, in Greenland, in Alaska, 
and in the Rocky Mountains of our own country. 

Ice which flows down the slopes of mountains forms Alpine glaciers, 
so named from their occurrence in the Alps Mountains. If you have been 
on the top of Pike's Peak, or in Glacier National Park, in the hottest 
months of summer, you have seen great patches of snow and ice among 
the crags and pinnacles above the snow line. The summers are not warm 
enough to cause all the snow to melt, and so it continues to gather in the 
hollows among the clouds and craggy peaks. When enough snow gathers 
so that its weight becomes sufficiently great, the lower portions become 
more like ice than snow. If the amount of snow is sufficiently great it 
will by and by begin to move slowly dow^n the mountain. 

Most of Greenland is covered by a great glacier a mile or so thick. 
Owing to the fact that it does not owe its origin to an accumulation of 
snow on high mountains but rather to a continuous accumulation on a 
broad land surface, this is known as a continental glacier. 

It is observed that when snow accumulates either on high mountains 
or on a continental plain as in Greenland, and glaciers move away from 
the center of snow accumulation, it is in the form of ice. That ice should 
flow, blue, hard, brittle ice, may at first seem strange. But truth is 
stranger than fiction. It is a matter of observed fact that snow does 
become ice and ice does flow. We are accustomed to think of ice as a 
brittle substance, and we know that when struck a sharp blow it will 
break into pieces. When, however, ice under great pressure is acted upon 
slowly and steadily for a long time, it not only does not break into pieces 
as a brittle solid, but actually flows very much as a mass of resin or cold 
thick pitch will flow if given time, bulging out on all sides from the 
pressure due to its own weight. 

How Ice Behaves Under Great Pressure. Let us consider in detail 
how ice behaves in very great masses. A cubic foot of ice weighs about 
52 pounds. Let us imagine two blocks of this size placed one upon the 
other. The bottom one sustains the weight of the block resting upon it. 
If 10 blocks are piled one on top of the other in a column, then the bottom 
one will sustain the weight of those that are above it. The pressure on the 
lower surface of the bottom block will be that due to the weight of 10 
blocks, or 520 pounds. If we imagine the blocks to be piled to a height 
equal to the highest building, say 200 feet, then the pressure upon the 
bottom, due to the weight of 200 foot cubes of ice, would be 10,400 
pounds, or more than 5 tons. 



38 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Now suppose that the entire land surface for many miles in every 
direction were covered with ice to a depth of 200 feet. Each square 




Fig. 11. 



Showing Moraine whicli is being Crowded upon by tlie Moving Ice. 
Photograph hy Prof. T. C. Chamherlin. 



foot of land would sustain a pressure e(|ual to the weight of 200 foot 
cubes of ice. The bottom cube in every such imaginary column would 
be prevented from crushing because there would be more blocks around 
it, each one trying just as hard to crush. 

Now in parts of the country where there are higli mountains, as the 
White Mountains in the State of New Hampshire, drift boulders and 
pebbles on the tops of the these mountains show that the ice covered their 
tops, or, in other words, the thickness of the ice was so great that the high 
mountains were buried. Some of these mountains which were so buried 
are more than a mile high, that is, their summits are more than a mile 
vertically above their bases, and drift boulders and gravel are found upon 
their sides and up to and on their very summits. The ice must, therefore, 
have been more than a mile deep- in those regions. 

It is thought by geologists that there was once ice on some parts of the 
North America continent more than 2 miles deep. What then must 
have been the pressure upon the lower layers due to the weight of the ice? 
One mih- is 5,280 feet. The pressure expressed in pounds upon the bottom 



THE WORK OF LAND ICE 



39 



of each square foot where the ice was one mile deep would be 5,280 times 
52 or 274,560 pounds, or more than 137 tons. 

Since the ice cannot crush, being hemmed in on all sides under the 
same pressure, the stress upon the lower portions of the mass can only ex- 
press itself by a flowing movement in the direction of least resistance, 
which will be outward from the common center of the mass or the center 
of the snow field. Under such conditions of great pressure, ice behaves 
like a thick, viscous substance, somewhat resembling pitch or thick tar. 

An Illustration. Let us imagine a large cask or barrel filled with hard 
pitch. It appears solid, and if a piece of it is struck a sharp blow it will 
break much like a brittle rock or a piece of ice. Suppose we should knock 
the barrel to pieces and leave the pitch standing in a great block. It 
will have the form of the inside of the barrel. But let it stand for some 
time, say a week or a month, and it will be seen to have bulged out at the 
sides near the bottom. Leave it longer. The mass no longer has the 















/ \ ■ 

( ) 




-/. 


^. 


c 


"^^- — ^ 


\ 

1 



Fig. i: 



Diagram Showing Flowage of Titcli. 



form of the inside of the barrel. It is flattening down and broadening out 
at the base. Leave it for a still longer time, for a year maybe, or even 
two years, and it will have flattened out so that no one would ever think 
that it had once had the form of the inside of a cask or barrel. 

Now, suppose such a block of pitch is left to stand on a level floor. 
It would flatten out and flow over the floor from the pressure due to its 
own weight. If there were some marbles or small stones lying upon the 
floor scattered about or in little heaps, the pitch would flow over these and 
shove them along with itself. If the block of pitch were on the cellar bot- 
tom where there were small hollows it would fill these and push on over 
them. If there were small gravel stones in these hollows some of these 
would be shoved along up out of the hollows and pushed over the uneven 
surface. 

If we now can imagine the pitch to disappear by some means without 
disturbing the pebbles it had moved over the cellar bottom, we should find 



40 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

these pebbles to have been shoved into a somewhat irreg^ular row near 
where the edge of the spreading pitch had been. 

In much the same way the ice flowed across the continent, filling the 
valleys and crossing the hills as the pitch flowed over the cellar bottom 
and filled and crossed the hollows and hummocks. The great pressure 
from the accumulation of snow in the interior of the continent caused the 
outward flow. In the interior of the continent the ice melted on the land 
when it had flowed southward into the warmer climate of lower latitudes. 
Off the coast of New England the edge of the great ice-sheet pushed off 
into the sea. In the latter case the rock fragments carried by the ice were 
thrust off into the sea. But in the former case, where the ice .melted on 
the land, the broken rock, some of which had been ground to fine powder 
and small fragments in the form of gravel and sand, together with the 
large boulders, were left where the melting ice dropped them. 

The Great Ice Invasion of North America. Nearly all of the northern 
half of North America has been covered by great fields of ice. In all 
of the northern States from North Dakota to Maine and the Atlantic 
Coast about New York City occur boulders, sand, and clay, and ridges and 
peculiar rounded hills. Such hills and ridges, together with sand, clay, 
and boulders, are seen from Alexandria to Fergus Falls along the Great 
Northern Railway ; about Hackensack and Walker on the Minnesota and 
International Railway ; Itasca State Park and southwest to Detroit, and 
south in the Lake Park region to Battle Lake, Underwood and Fergus 
Falls ; in a belt extending 60 miles northeast from Carlton parallel with 
the north shore of Lake Superior; about Lincoln and Cushing on the 
Northern Pacific Railway; between Albany and Holdingford on the Soo 
Line ; and between Albany and St. Joseph on the Great Northern Railway. 
These are hills which mark halting places in the movement of the great 
ice sheet, the places where the end of the glacier stood when slow move- 
ment of the ice was balanced by melting. The ice melting there left the 
materials which were being moved by the glacier, and these are the ma- 
terials of which the hills are composed. Such hilly tracts are known as 
moraines. Those formed at the end of the glacier, marking the limit of 
the glacier's advance, are known as terminal moraines. 

When ice lay upon the landscape to a depth of perhaps half a mile, 
we have seen before that the pressure of the lower layers was very great. 
The ice was cold, hard, and brittle, just as we know it, only that in great 
masses it has the property of slow flowing motion. Irregular surfaces 
on the landscape would naturally obstruct the movement of the ice. The 
ice in turn would act with great force upon the projecting rocks. Obser- 
vations of existing glaciers show how fragments of rock are broken off 



THE WORK OF LAND ICE 41 

from obstructing hummocks, and these fragments become embodied in 
the moving mass of ice. 

Materials Carried in the loe. Large masses of hard rocks were thus 
broken off and carried along with irresistible force. There was much 




Fig. 13. A Striated and relished Boulder. 

rubbing together and grinding of fragments carried in the ice with those 
under the ice and with the rocky floor beneath. When there were rough 
places on the rocky surface, these were ground and smoothed, and the 
fragments which were torn away were shoved and carried along with the 
moving mass. Stones carried in the ice were smoothed and polished. 
Such smoothed and polished fragments are common among glacial grav- 
els and boulders. In fact, nearly all the boulders in the fields are smooth, 
at least the sharp, angular corners have been rounded, and many of them 
are distinctly polished. It is common also to find boulders and pebbles 
not only smooth, but having straight lines cut in their surfaces. These 
lines were caused by the stones being shoved against hard rock surfaces. 
Rock surfaces and boulders or pebbles having marks made in this manner 
are said to be '^striated stones," and the fine lines or furrows are "striae." 

Boulders and stones which were carried or shoved along the bottom 
of the ice upon a stony or' a hard rock floor received severe treatment 
Not only were their rough corners ground off, but many of those which 
were less hard and, indeed, many of those which were very hard, were 
ground to powder. Much of the clay of our fields is rock flour thus ground 
up by the great ice-mill. 

Action of Ice on Surfaces Passed Over. While these rock fragments 
which were carried along by the moving ice were being thus ground to 
powder, what was the effect upon the underlying bed-rock? Figure 15 



42 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



is a photograph of the striated and polished surface of hard quartzite 
rock. Such striated and polished rock surfaces occur in many places in 
Minnesota. Examples may be seen on the volcanic rocks at Taylors Falls ; 
at Lester Park and other places in Duluth : on the smooth polished knobs 
of rock at Carlton ; on the surface ledges of limestone quarries at Minne- 
apolis and St. Paul, Northfield and Mankato; on exposed surfaces of 
granite rocks at Granite Falls ; on quartzite rock at New Ulm. 

When a hummock or little hill chanced to lie in the path of the 
glacier and its width and height were great enough so that it could not 
be broken off, the ice surrounded and flowed over it. Such a hummock 
would be combed and rasped by the ice and by the pieces of rock carried 
in and under the ice. If the hummock withstood this harsh treatment, 



1 


1 




iM 


k^ '- 
^.>' 


-j> 


mi 


J 


I 




r 






^^k!^3 


1 


1 


1 


>, 


r ' 








1 


1 


i2 


II 


0? 




HiW 




1 


1 



Fig. 14. Hard Rock Surface Smoothed and Polished by Ice, Northern St. Louis County. 



when the glacier disappeared by melting the little hill or hummock might 
look something like the polished hummocks at Carlton. Figure 16 shows 
a granite pebble on which are several polished and grooved surfaces or 
planes. 

The ice moved in a general way from north toward the south. The 
snowfields or centers from which the glaciers which crossed Minnesota 
came are far north in Canada. In their movement southward vast quanti- 
ties of soil or broken rock were moved across what is now the interna- 
tional boundary. This was long before any tariff regulations had been 
made, or any reciprocity treaties negotiated. We got a valuable inherit- 
ance of limestone from what is now the Province of Manitoba. This, 
ground to fine flour and mixed in our soils, is one of the reasons why 



44 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



wheat growing is profitable. in Minnesota, and, indeed, is one of the 
most valuable soil ingredients. 

Moraines. Stones and various fragments of earth are carried down 
by alpine glaciers, and as the ice melts when it gets down into the valleys, 




Fig. 16. Granite Tebble, Showing Ice Planing and Striae. 

or down the mountain sides where it is warmer, it leaves the stone frag- 
ments which have been carried or pushed along. These materials are left 
in irregular heaps and piles, and are known as moraines, from a French 
word meaning "a heap of stones." At the edge of the ice, where the 
rate of melting just about equals the movement onward so that, while 











-At 




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ft, iSl, ... M. 


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Fig. 17. Islands in liainy I^ake, Kemnants of Hills Smoothed and Polished by Glacier Ice. 

the ice moves continuously, the end of the glacier stands still, there comes 
to be a gathering place of broken stones, earth, and soil, which were car- 
ried by the ice. These are dumped in heaps and irregular ridges. Small 
fragments of rock, sand, clay, and soil from the land surface are all piled 
together in great confusion. Hollows occur between these knolls and 



THE WORK OF LAND ICE 



45 



ridges, small and large, round and irregular, deep and shallow, and some 
of them are filled with water from the melting ice. 

This whole affair — the heaps and piles of earth and broken stones, 
the irregular ridges, the hollows and lakes — makes up what is called a 
terminal moraine. It is called terminal because it is at the terminus or 
end of the glacier. 

On the sides of glaciers stone and soil gather from the grinding of 
the ice against the hillsides along which it passes, and from crags falling 
upon the edge of the moving ice. Often these materials form long ridges 
or piles which extend for long distances along the edge of the ice-stream 
or glacier. These are sometimes upon the ice and being carried along 
with it, and sometimes they occur as ridges skirting the edge of the ice 



=-jWJi^^^j»v 




Fig. 18. Gray Drift Moraine North of St. Paul. Photograph Jry F. J. Alway. 

but upon the ground. Such a line of broken rock and soil is a lateral 
moraine, so named because formed on the side of the glacier. 

It frequently happens in mountains where glaciers exist that two or 
more smaller streams of snow-ice from higher up the mountain run to- 
gether lower down and form one larger ice-stream, just as the branches or 
tributaries of a river run together to form a larger river. On the sides of 
each of these branch or tributary glaciers there are lateral moraines. 
When, therefore, two such streams come together two lateral moraines 
meet, like the two parts of a letter V, and below the point of meeting 
the two ridges become one, and this continues down the course of 
the larger stream, but in the midst of it and not at the side or edge. The 



46 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

two lateral moraines which unite form a single ridge like the stem of the 
letter Y, and this is known as a medial moraine, because it is carried on 
the middle of the glacier. 

At the bottom of the glacier, on the ground which the ice passes over, 
pieces of rock which are broken off from projecting crags, loose fragments 
of stone lying upon the surface of the ground, and soil, are shoved along 
and ground under or near the bottom of the ice. This material is shoved 
into hollows and ground to powder on the hard bottom. When the glacier 
melts back and uncovers this material, or when the glacier disappears al- 
together, as many glaciers have done, this is left as ground moraine. 

There are thus four forms of moraines formed by alpine glaciers, 
terminal, lateral, medial, and ground. These forms are not always sharp- 
ly separated from each other. These forms of deposits from alpine gla- 
ciers are of interest to us because similar deposits formed by continental 
glaciers occur on a very grand scale in Minnesota, and in other northern 
States. 

It may be assumed that the glaciers that once spread their great 
masses over Minnesota behaved in much the same way as glaciers behave 
that now exist in Greenland, in Alaska, and in the Alps of Europe. 
Modern glaciers move over the land and push ahead during certain sea- 
sons or periods of years ; then in turn the front of a glacier may retreat 
at times when the ice at the edge or end of the glacier melts more rapidly 
than the mass of the glacier advances. This is spoken of as the advance 
and retreat of the ice front. 

Now while the ice of a glacier does advance with a slow flowing mo- 
tion, in the nature of things it cannot retreat or move backward any 
more than a river can flow back up-stream. However, the front or edge 
or end of the glacier may retreat or move back up its course by reason of 
the fact that the ice melts more rapidly than it moves ahead. If melting 
were for a season more rapid than the onward movement of the ice, then 
the edge of the ice would slowly retire backward. In doing this the gla- 
cier leaves a load of earth, sand, gravel, boulders, and clay to show where 
it had been. If the edge of the ice for some time stands at nearly the 
same place, alternately advancing and retreating, there would be long 
lines of earth heaps or ridges of materials, forming what has been called 
a moraine. If the ice melted back somewhat rapidly there would be un- 
covered wliat had been carried under the ice, scattered boulders, gravel, 
sand, and clay, as a flat area between the moraine and the ice front. If 
the forward movement of the ice and the melting should now nearly bal- 
ance for a time, so that the ice front became nearly stationary again, here 
would be formed another morainic ridge. 



THE WORK OF LAND ICE 



47 



If this should occur again, this formation of a moraine would be re- 
peated, and so there might come to be a series of morainic ridges more 
or less nearly parallel to each other. If, however, the ice should move 
ahead more rapidly than it melted away at the front, the ice would over- 
ride these ridges, levelling them down and pushing their materials along. 
This melting back and pushing ahead has occurred a great many times, 
as a study of the terminal moraines of our State and of other northern 
States shows. Wide moraines are really a number of narrow ones close 
together, where advance and retreat of the ice front many times in suc- 
cession caused the terminal moraine to become not a simple line or long 




Fig. 19. A Section in a Sandy Morainic Hill. 



heap of earth and stones, but a belt of such materials. Again, moraines 
could be piled upon one another, and as not all the earth and stones of the 
hills and ridges would be shoved along in front of the advancing ice, one 
moraine would be run over by the ice, and another upon it, and thus the 
depth of the material in a moraine-belt became often very great. Thus 
the terminal moraines which mark the places where the edge of the great 
ice sheet stood are not merely single ridges of earth and stones, but are 
belts of ridges and hills. 

The hills may be of all sizes and all heights up to 150 feet or even 200 
feet. Between them are little hollows and large hollows, ^'kettles" they 



48 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



have been called, sometimes containiug water, sometimes dry, and some- 
times what were first lakes have given place gradually to marshes or ' ' hay 
meadows." Sometimes the hills are long, graceful swells, and sometimes 
their sides are very steep. So also the hollows may be round or they 
may be elongated and irregular, and they may be deep or shallow. Some- 
times the hillsides are strewn thickly with boulders, and sometimes no 
pebble larger than a toy marble can be found. 

Till-Plains. One of the most important of the deposits formed by the 
continental glaciers is that of earth materials that were carried or shoved 
along in and under the ice, and which, when the ice finally melted, were 



M» -'-'* 


• 




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m 


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Fig. 20. Boulder Strewn Till-plain, Carlton County. 

left in the form of broadly rolling or gently undulating plains. These 
are the ground moraines of the continental glaciers, known also as till- 
plains, and the earth materials of which they are made up are known as 
till. These till deposits, or ground moraine, make up the greater part 
of the "prairies" of the northwestern States. 

The materials of the till-plains or ground moraines consist of soil and 
rock fragments that were gathered up by the ice as it moved over the 
land, and fragments of rock broken from ledges by the ice. These mate- 
rials were mixed and ground up by the ice, being rubbed together and 



THE WORK OF LAND ICE 



49 



shoved over hard surfaces. The finest product of the great ice-mill was 
clay and next to this in fineness is rock flour or silt. All sizes of rock 
fragments from those of clay and silt to gravel and boulders are included 
in these deposits. As much water from the melting ice took part in the 
deposition of the materials carried by the ice, there frequently occur 
stratified layers of sand and gravel in the deposits. The unstratified clay 
deposits are known as boulder clay because of the occurrence of boulders 
of all sizes irregularly distributed through the clay. 

Till-plains or ground moraines are sometimes strewn with boulders, 




Fig. 21. Surface of Platteville Limestone Smoothed and Grooved by the Kansan Ice Sheet. 

U. S. Geological Survey. 

Quarry South of the State University, Minneapolis. The Limestone is Overlain by Hard 

Kansan Till. 

and such are frequently spoken of as boulder plains. By whatever name 
called and whatever mixture of boulders, pebbles, sand, silt, and clay, 
these are the deposits from the great ice sheets that were laid down and 
ridden over by the ice, being carried at the bottom or in the lower por- 
tions of the glaciers. 

Outwash Plains. The melting of a continental glacier resulted in a 
tremendous amount of water that had to escape somewhere. Streams 
formed on, in, and under the ice. Such streams carried much silt, sand. 



50 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



and gravel. The deposits made by these ice-waters often extend for 
many miles away from the moraines that formed at the glacier's edge. 
The materials carried by these ice-waters were deposited over wide areas. 
Such deposits are known as outwash plains. Such plains are generally 
smooth and nearly level. The soil of such lands is commonly sandy in 
character, and deposits of gravel are common below the surface, often a 
surface deposit of silt forming the upper layer. 

The broad nearly level plain between Robbinsdale and Anoka is an 
example. The Northern Pacific Kailway traverses such a plain from 
Anoka to St. Cloud, and another from Little Falls to Brainerd and Pine 




Fig. 22. Outwash Plain of Gray Drift West of White Bear. 

River. The Soo traverses an outwash plain from Paynesville to Brooten 
and Glenwood. Another extends from Cyrus, on the Morris branch of 
the Northern Pacific, southward to Benson, on the Great Northern. An- 
other extends from Ortonville eastward to Appleton and Montevideo, 
One of the most extensive in the State extends southward from Park 
Rapids and Nevis to Wadena, Staples, and Motley, and southward in 
plains of varying width to Long Prairie, Parker's Prairie, and Battle 
Lake. Other examples of outwash plains are the Hamline Prairie at St. 
Paul; Rosemount and Farmington east to Hastings; the sandy plain at 
Pierz; at Deerwood; at Emily; north of Mille Lacs Lake and extending 
westward to Cass Lake and Bemidji ; and south of Moose Lake to Stur- 
geon Lake, Willow River, and Rutledge. 

Eskers. Streams of ice water sometimes formed channels in and 
under the ice before they emerged at the front. If the gravel bed depos- 



THE WORK OF LAND ICE 



51 



ited by such a stream was left when the glacier retreated or melted away, 
this appears as a long gravelly ridge. Such a ridge is known as 
an esker. 

Eskers generally occur in association with terminal moraines. They 
are not as important as outwash plains, but because of their striking ap- 
pearance, they are worthy of consideration here. They have a good deal 
the appearance of giant earth walls built as with design. Sometimes they 
are so uniform they are made use of as naturally graded highways. 




Fig. 23. 



Esker Between Lakes in Eastern Lake County. 
Photograph hy F. J. Alway. 



Eskers are common sources of gravel for railroad ballast and other 
uses. An example of one is that used by the Northern Pacific Railway 
at Darling. Other examples of eskers are south of Perham ; north of 
Richdale ; east of Pine Lake ; and near Foley and Mora. 



52 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




'K!. 24. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE GREAT ICE SHEETS IN MINNESOTA 

Ice Invasions in Minnesota. At one time glaciers covered nearly 
half of North America. These glaciers left their record in the changed 
appearance of the landscape. During the glacial period, conditions 
prevailed such that vast ice fields developed over what are now provinces 
in Canada and moved southward over the United States. All of the 
United States, north of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, west to the foot 
of the Rocky Mountains, and east to Long Island, bears evidence of 
glaciers or great ice sheets having passed over the land. The glaciers 
started from east, south, and west of Hudson Bay, and flowed or moved 
out in all directions from their centers. Movement in a southerly direc- 
tion from these centers reached Minnesota. 

The center of ice accumulation west of Hudson Bay is called the 
Keewatin center, or ice cap, from the Canadian province of Keewatin, 
and the glaciers that came from this center are spoken of as Keewatin 
glaciers. Eastward of Hudson Bay over Labrador was another center 
of ice accumulation, and glaciers from this ice cap are called Labradorian 
glaciers. South of Hudson Bay in the territory embraced in the old 
province of Patricia was another "center" of ice movement and the 
glacier that moved southward from this ice cap is called a Patrician 
glacier. 

All the glaciers which invaded Minnesota came by one of three 
routes. Those from the Keewatin ice cap came by the low valley of the 
Red River of the North and then down the Minnesota and across to the 
Des Moines Valley, and in doing so the ice followed the lowest land of 
the State. The glacier from the Labrador ice cap came along the Lake 
Superior Basin and spread into Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. 
The one glacier from the Patrician ice cap came from the high land 
north of Lake Superior, southward across the Iron Ranges, and then 
pushed a lobe or tongue of ice down the valley of the Mississippi. It 
would be a good guess that if a glacier ever invades Minnesota again 
from Canada, it will come by one of these three routes. They are the 
natural routes for glaciers. 

It has been explained, in Chapter III, that ice in the form of glaciers 
moves in a manner comparable to the flow of a thick viscous substance. 
The great ice mass flowed over the landscape, filling the valleys and 
overriding the hills. One of the properties of ice in great masses is 
that it disregards the minor topographical features of the landscape, 

53 



54 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

crossing valleys which lie athwart its course and moving up slopes. 
When the ice in its slow movement came upon a broad and deep valley 
that had its main axis somewhat parallel to the movement of the ice, 
the glacier followed, in a general way, the course of the valley. 

Thus the ice from the Keewatin ice cap moved southward up the 
valley of the Red River of the North and dow^n the valley of the Minne- 
sota. Tongues of ice from the Labrador ice cap were deflected westward 
through the basin of Lake Superior and thus reached Minnesota. Simi- 
larly ice from the Patrician glacier which entered Minnesota was turned 
westward by the deep valley of the Superior Basin. 

The Greenland Ice Cap. To understand how glaciers could form to 
the north in Canada, and flow up grade over Minnesota let us look at the 
conditions in Greenland at the present time. The annual snow fall in 
Greenland is very great. The center of Greenland is 9,000 feet above 
cea level, and practically all that height is supposed to be snow and 
ice. The snow which gathers is weighted and packed down by the piling 
up of more snow on top until it forms one great glacier. 

Greenland is a large island, or small continent, and it is nearly totally 
covered by glaciers, all from the piling up of snow. The glaciers push out 
into the sea and break off, forming icebergs. All of the icebergs of the 
Atlantic Ocean, thousands of them, blocks of ice thousands of feet thick 
and a mile scjuare, and larger and smaller, are glacier ice from Greenland. 

Greenland has not always had the same climate that it has now. 
This is shown by fossil leaves in the rocks. So, also, its glacier is under- 
going change. The Norsemen who settled Greenland, A. D. 983, may be 
supposed to have settled on the east coast where there was probably a 
strip of ice-free land then, just as there is now on the west coast. The 
glacial ice cap has been moved over, or changed in position relative to the 
land in Greenland. Such a change in less than a thousand years, suggests 
to us how it is that Labrador was once covered by an ice cap and shows 
all the marks of glaciers, but has no glaciers there now. When there 
were glaciers all over Labrador, Greenland was probably a grass green 
island, — a literal elephant pasture ! 

If we imagine an ice cap like that of Greenland, 1,200 miles long and 
600 miles wide, and ne<nly 2 miles thick, and then imagine that great 
ice cap placed on the west side of Hudson Bay, sending out its tongues 
of ice over the land instead of breaking up into the sea, then it is plain 
that Minnesota might be invaded from the Northwest by a glacial tongue 
from that ice cap. With such an ice cap as that of Greenland covering 
Labrador, then we can imagine how Duluth and New York both would be 
pushed off the map by glacial tongues coming from that glacial center. 



THE GREAT ICE SHEETS IN MINNESOTA 



55 



The ice cap from which came the first ice sheet over Minnesota from 
west of Hudson Bay may have been not so great as the present Greenland 
ice cap, but instead of dissipating into the ocean, as the Greenland glacier 
does now, it shoved out over the land. The Antarctic glacier of the south- 
ern hemisphere is now greater in area than any that ever was on North 
America in the Ice Age. 




Glacial Striae 

Late Wisconsin — * 

Middle Wisconsin •-* 

Kansan =^ 

Pre Kansan ==* 

- - 20 30 40 sp Mile..^ 



Fig. 25. 



Map of Minnesota Showing the Extent of the Glacial Ice Sheets, Direction of Ice 
Movements, and Shores of Glacial Lakes. By Frank Leverett. 



The Ice Sheets in Minnesota. What is now the State of Minnesota 
has been over-run by glaciers at four different times. In other words 
there have been four ice invasions. The "Glacial Period," or "Ice Age" 
as it is sometimes called, was long. Ice did not cover the land all the 



56 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

time. Conditions changed so that the ice disappeared off from the land 
and then came again. The coming of a glacier is spoken of as an ice 
invasion, and the time during which the ice held sway is spoken of as a 
glacial stage. The time that elapsed after the ice melted and the glacier 
disappeared until another glacier came, or until another glacial invasion 
occurred, is called an interglacial stage. 

In a sense we are still living in the glacial period in Minnesota, for 
the time since the close of the last glacial stage is not as long as some 
of the interglacial stages, and if we count four glacial stages of ice inva- 
sion and four interglacial stages when there were no glaciers here then 
we are now living in the fourth interglacial stage. Whether there will 
be another glacial stage here or not we do not know. Greenland is in 
the midst of a glacial invasion right now, but it seems very improbable 
that a ''tongue of ice" from the Greenland ice sheet will ever reach 
Minnesota. When Labrador was covered with ice as Greenland now is 
tongues of ice did reach Minnesota at two different times. 

Between the four stages of ice invasion, that is, in the interglacial 
'Kjtages, the glaciers entirely melted away. In the first glacial stage the ice 
covered all the area of Minnesota except a small area in the extreme 
southeastern corner of the state, in what is now Houston and Winona 
Counties. The second invasion covered nearly the same area of the State, 
though not quite as much as before. During the third invasion only a 
small area was covered, or what is now Washington County and parts of 
Dakota, Ramsey, Chisago, and probably parts of Carlton, Pine, and St. 
Louis Counties. The rest of what is now Minnesota remained free from 
glaciers at that time. In the fourth and latest stage the whole area of 
Minnesota was covered except the southwest corner as far as to Pipestone 
and Adrian, and the southeast corner as far as Austin and St. Paul. 

A small part of the area of Minnesota has been covered by glaciers 
in all four stages of ice invasion. The greater part of the State has been 
covered three times. The rest of the State's area has been covered twice, 
once, or not at all. Each succeeding glacier left characteristic deposits 
of "drift" where it had been. The "drift" of the latest stage covers the 
greater part of the area of each and all of the earlier deposits. 

The Latest Ice Invasion: the Wisconsin. Three glaciers came into 
Minnesota nearly at the same time during the last glacial stage, 
and yet they did not cover all the area of the State. They were long, com- 
paratively narrow "tongues" or branches from three ice-centers in 
Canada. One, which came from the west of Hudson Bay, from the prov- 
ince formerly called Keewatin, is spoken of as a Keewatin glacier. One 
which came from Labrador is spoken of as a Labrador glacier. One which 



THE GREAT ICE SHEETS IN MINNESOTA 57 

came from north of Lake Superior, from the old province of Patricia, 
is called a Patrician glacier. 

The Keewatin glacier, of the fourth and last glacial stage, came up 
the valley of the Red River of the North and down the valley of the 
Minnesota, and across into the Des Moines valley and as far south as Des 
Moines, Iowa. This glacier spread out eastward in Minnesota and west- 
ward into North Dakota. It carried and dragged along boulders, pebbles, 
and clay of many kinds, including limestones from Manitoba, all of which 
was left spread over the ground after this glacier melted away, in what 
is called a gray drift sheet. As soon as this glacier had reached its great- 
est extent in its advance southward it began to "retreat." That is, it 
melted at the ends and sides more rapidly than it advanced. Several mo- 
raines show that at different times it came back, or re-advanced, but it 
only pushed its edge forward enough to bunch up the drift deposit into a 
moraine each time. The position of these successive moraines shows that 
the ice edge was stationary many times during the final melting away of 
the glacier. Rivers springing from the edge of the glacier brought out 
gravel and sand, forming flat "outwash" deposits and gravel trains. 



Fig. 26. Farm on the Stony Patrician Drift at Tower, riioiograph hy F. J. Alicay. 

The Labrador glacier pushed through the Lake Superior Basin and 
westward in Minnesota to McGrath and McGregor, in Aitkin County. 
It brought a pinkish or bright red drift without limestone over the area 
which it covered. Between McGregor and Lawler the edge of the gray 
drift from the northwest (Keewatin) overlaps onto the red drift from 
the east. This shows that the Labrador glacier reached its widest extent 
and began its retreat before the Keewatin glacier reached its widest ex- 



58 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

tent. The Labrador glacier also left a succession of moraines showing that 
this glacier advanced several times during its retreat or melting away. 

The Patrician glacier came from north of the basin of Lake Superior 
and pushed across northeastern Minnesota towards Minneapolis. It 
reached south as far as Belle Plain, New Prague, Lonsdale, Lakeville, 
Langdon, and Afton. It brought a lavender colored drift from Patricia, 
but after crossing the Iron Ranges in Minnesota this drift is red with 
iron, although not as bright red as the Labrador drift in Minnesota. 
The Patrician drift is the "red drift" described in Minnesota geological 
reports. The moraines of Patrician drift, as north of St. Paul, are rough 
stony rolling belts. Even where the Labrador and Keewatin glaciers 




Fig. 27. Red Drift Moraine with Coating of Gray Drift Nortli of St. Taul. 
Photogravh by F. J. Alway. 

rode over them they remain as rolling belts, as at Moose Lake and 
Grand Rapids. The Patrician glacier extended westward as far as Red 
Lake, Wadena, Sauk Center, and Paynesville, but its drift deposit is 
covered with gray drift at those places. The Patrician glacier had 
advanced and begun its retreat a little earlier than the Labrador and 
Keewatin glaciers. In fact, the position of their moraines shows that 
the end of the Patrician glacier was back near to the Canadian boundary 
at Hunter's Island when the end of the Labrador olacier was at Carlton, 



THE GREAT ICE SHEETS IN MINNESOTA 59 

and the Keewatin glacier was at its greatest extension, at Des Moines, 
Iowa. 

The Patrician glacier developed many large gravelly outwash plains. 
Examples are Hamline Prairie in St. Paul, Rosemount Prairie in Dakota 
County, the sandy and gravelly plain east of the Mississippi River from 
Sauk Rapids to Little Falls, north and west of Pierz in Morrison County, 
west of Emily and of Deerwood in Crow Wing County, and north of 
Mille Lacs Lake in Aitkin County. This glacier formed several eskers 
also, notably north of Little Falls, — gravelly beds of rivers in or on the 
glacier which were let down upon the ground surface when the ice melted. 
These have the appearance of giant earth walls. (See Chap. III.) 

Pieces of iron ore and sometimes natural copper are found in 
the red. drift. These fragments came from the Iron Ranges and copper 
formations in northern Minnesota and Canada. The agates which are 
abundant in the red drift came also from the copper-bearing rocks of 
Minnesota and Canada. Pieces of iron ore are sometimes found in the 
gray drift, but not copper or agates. On the other hand the red drift 
has few if any limestone boulders or pebbles, while the gray drift has 
many. Together with their color the red and the gray drift deposits as 
a whole are conspicuously different. It is useless to look for agates 
where there are many limestone pebbles, as many amateurs have dis- 
covered. 

The color of the glacial drift is a simple matter, but is one that may 
be easily confused. Soil has formed upon the drift deposits since they 
were laid down by the glaciers. The soil is dark in color. Under the soil 
there is a rusted or "oxidized" brown layer of two to four feet. This 
has been formed at the same time as the soil and by the same weathering 
agencies. The rusty or oxidized top of the gray drift is brownish red in 
color, almost exactly the same in color as the fresh Patrician red drift. 
The oxidized top of the Patrician red drift, however, has a yellowish red 
or iron-rust color. This is also the color of the oxidized top of the Labra- 
dor red drift in Minnesota. At Minneapolis there is generally a black 
soil, then the red (oxidized) top of the gray (Keewatin) drift, then the 
fresh gray drift, and under this the fresh red (Patrician) drift (seen in 
excavations). The same red (Keewatin) subsoil over and the fresh red 
(Patrician) drift under the gray drift, is seen at Jordan, Excelsior, and 
other places. 

In St. Paul, which lies outside of the Keewatin drift area, the black 
soil lies on a rusty red subsoil and under this is the fresh Patrician red 
drift. At Hinckley, in places where the great forest fires of 1895 burned 
the surface clean, the new black soil is one or two inches thick over the 



60 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

old burned surface, and under this are the rusty subsoil and the fresh 
red Patrician drift. 

Soil is the mixed result of the decay of plants and the weathering of 
the top portion of the ground. The subsoil of rusty drift is also the result 
of weathering. A soil mantle has formed alike on the Keewatin drift, the 
Patrician drift, and the Labradorian drift, wherever these deposits are at 
the surface. There is no soil or "weathered zone" on the Labradorian 
drift where the Keewatin drift covers it, nor any soil or weathered zone 
on the top of the Patrician drift where this deposit is covered by either 
1 he Keewatin or the Labradorian drift. This means that the time between 
the depositing of these drift sheets was so short that the decay of plants 
and the weathering process did not form a soil on them. These three drift 
sheets have one soil covering in common, and they belong to one glacial 




Fig. 28. Flax Field on Red River Clay Plain. 

stage. This is known as the Wisconsin stage, and the drift deposits of all 
the glaciers of this stage are spoken of as Wisconsin drift. 

The Third or Illinoisan Glacial Stage. The lUinoisan is a Labradorian 
red drift in Minnesota. That is, a great glacial tongue spread over Illinois 
and eastern Wisconsin, and a branch or tongue from it came across nor- 
thern Wisconsin to the east side of Minnesota. It all came from a Labra- 
dor ice-field, and it brought red drift. There were no geologists here at 
that time and no man saw the ice, but the red drift any one can see, and 
its meaning is plain. 

At Taylor's Falls a cut on the Northern Pacific Railway shows a 
vertical cross-section of the soil through all the drift that there is at 
that place down to the solid rock. At the top there is Keewatin gray drift, 
then the Patrician red drift, and below this a brighter red drift. There 
is, of course, soil or a ''weathered zone" at the top or surface of the gray 
(Keewatin) drift, and another, a buried soil or ''weathered zone," on the 



THE GREAT ICE SHEETS IN MINNESOTA 61 

top of the lower of the two red drifts. The lower of the red drift deposits 
is the Illinoisan, and the rusty weathered zone at the top of it is the record 



Fig. 29. Superior Red Drift over Patrician Red Drift near Cloquet. The Man Sits on 
a Boulder at their Junction. 




Fig. 30. Clayey Keewatin Drift over Stony Patrician Drift at Biwabik. 
Photograph ly F. J. Alwaij. 

of a time after the glaciers of the Illinoisan stage had disappeared or 
melted away and before any glaciers of the Wisconsin stage came. 



62 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



In Dakota County, between Hastings and Cannon Falls, the Illinoisan 
red drift lies outside of where any of the glaciers of the Wisconsin stage 
reached, and it is not covered over^by any of them. 

The Second or Kansan Glacial Stage. At the Mahoning iron mines at 
Hibbing there are three drift sheets represented. None of them are com- 
plete because the rocky hills on the Range were left bare by the last gla- 
cier. The iron mines, however, are on lower ground and over them 
there is drift. Three drift sheets are seen at the Mahoning mine, two 
"gray" drifts with a "red" drift between them. All of the drift tlfere 
is red in color because of the iron ore that has been mixed and leached 
into it, but the "gray" drifts are known by the limestones in them. 
The "red" drift has no limestones. 

The three drifts at Mahoning do not include the Illinoisan red drift. 
That glacier did not get as far as that place. The three drift sheets are 
the Keewatin gray and the Patrician red of the Wisconsin glacial stage, 
and the Kansan. The Kansan is a "gray" drift here, as it is in fact 
everywhere. There is, or was, to be seen a buried peat-bog, — an ancient 
one, — at the Hibbing mine. This bog is under the Patrician red drift on 
the surface of the Kansan gray drift. It shows that plants grew over 
this country just before the glaciers of the Wisconsin stage invaded 
Minnesota. 

In wells and deep cuts the Kansan gray drift is often found under the 
Patrician red drift, and always under the Keewatin gray drift in all 
parts of Minnesota. The Kansan is found under the Illinoisan in Dakota 




Fiu. 31. Old Ked Drift Moraine near Hampton. PhotourapU by F. J- Alicau- 



THE GREAT ICE SHEETS IN MINNESOTA 63 

County. It is found in Goodhue County and southward not covered by 
any other glacial drift, and likewise w^est of Pipestone and Adrian in 
southwestern Minnesota. Soil or peat beds are often dug up between the 
Kansan and other drifts overlying it. 

The First Glacial Stage, the Nebraskan. The Kansan drift is not the 
first one, since there is found an older ' ' gray ' ' drift under it with soil, bog, 
lake bed, or other deposits, with logs of trees, shells, elephants' bones, and 
other deposits, between them. This oldest gray drift, sometimes called 
Nebraskan, was deposited by a glacier or glaciers which came from a 
Keewatin glacial center. It is filled with limestones as are all the other 
gray drifts. At the present time, however, this Nebraskan, or as it is 
often called Pre-Kansan drift, is mainly known in southern Minnesota, 
Iowa, and southward. It extends to the Missouri River and across the 
Mississippi from Iowa into Illinois. The first glacial invasion was very 
Extensive in this region, probably greater than any other that followed 
it here. 



CHAPTER V 

AN EXCURSION TO SOME GLACIERS 

A Glance into Norway. Norway furnishes many good examples of 
alpine glaciers. We cannot all go to Norway, or to Switzerland, or 
even to the snow-capped mountains of our ow^n country. Since it is 
not possible for us to see the actual glaciers we may learn much from 
pictures. 




I'Jiotofjrapli hi/ A. Thoi 



A glacier as it slowly moves down the mountain side is shown in 
figure 32. In the foreground is shown the dumping ground of the 
materials carried by the ice, the terminal moraine of the glacier. It is 
a belt and not a simple ridge. The distance across this belt of ridges, 
heaps and irregular mounds of boulders and miscellaneous rock frag- 
ments, gravel, sand, and earth, is about three-fourths of a mile, from the 
extreme foreground of the picture to the edge of the ice. Six morainic 

04 



AN EXCURSION TO SOME GLACIERS 



65 



ridges can be seen, counting the one at the extreme front on which 
the top of a small tree appears. 

Back of the dark appearing morainic ridge in the left of the same 
picture is a lateral moraine, marked vv. This is a sharp-crested ridge 
of broken stones, earth, and debris from the mountain side. At the 
places marked v along the side of the glacier are ridges and heaps of 
earth and stones 30 feet high, which belong to the lateral moraine of 
the glacier and are still being carried along with the ice. Dark patches 
along the side of the ice at the foot of the mountain side and extending 
up the glacier are also heaps of earth and stones belonging to the lateral 
moraine. 




Fig. 3.'j. Near View of Glacier Front Showing Ice Cave. 

A near view of a small part of the front of the same glacier is 
shown in figure 33. A great cave has formed in the ice wall from 
melting, and a subglacial river here emerges from under the ice. The 
ice is clean, blue, and hard. The rugged surface of this glacier is shown 
in figure 34. The lateral moraine before referred to is the dark part 
running diagonally across the middle of the picture. The ice moves 
from the upper left corner to the center right of the picture. 



t)(j 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




Fio. 85. Terminal Moraine, Front of Glacier, and Glacier in Distance. 
P]ioto(jr(ii)h by A. Thorson. 



AN EXCURSION TO SOME GLACIERS 67 

A view of the glacier from the front is given in figure 35. Near the 
center of the picture is shown a part of the glacier where the ice is 
broken into a chowder by a fall or slide down a precipice about 3,000 
feet. The precipice is shown just back of the white place in the center 
of the picture. The ice goes over this great cataract in immense masses 
crashing with tremendous force down over the rocky steep, making a 
noise like the heaviest thunder. The ice is not only shattered by the 
fall but it is shivered into snow-dust, and this loose mass of snow 
powder is what is seen in the center of the picture. Below in the fore- 
ground of the picture, the ice powder has become solid ice again, and 
appears as hard, blue, stratified ice. 

Another view, a little to the right, is shown in figure 36. The 
morainic ridge is about 20 feet high, and is being pushed by the ice from 
behind. A river of considerable size flows away from the melting ice. 
Still another view of the same glacier front is shown in figure 37. This is 
a little to the left of that shown in figure 36. The stratified structure 
of the ice is here well shown. The morainic ridge near the ice is about 
20 feet high. The moraine is being washed away by the ice-water. 

The glaciers shown in the foregoing pages are in Norway. There 
was a time when Norway might be said to have been ''in the glaciers." 
The glaciers which are now small and which are growing smaller, were 
once large, so large, in fact, that they carried blocks of Norway granite 
all the way to England. This, at first thought, seems a little startling, 
and it is natural to inquire how we know this. In the first place, there is 
no place in Norway where moraines of glaciers are not found. It is 
evident that the glaciers once reached down from the mountain valleys 
to sea level, for moraines occur far below where the glaciers have their 
ends, and are forming moraines today. 

Moraines occur not only near the coast, but they extend away into 
the sea, or would if they had not been swept away by the waves and 
currents. That glaciers also covered the high mountain tops along the 
coast is shown by the smooth, bald, rocky tops of mountains along the 
coast. Grooves or striae have been cut in these rocks and these show 
also the direction in which the ice moved. 

For glaciers of Norway and Finland to carry off blocks of granite 
to England and north Germany, as it is claimed by European geologists 
they did, the glaciers must have been very large, as those of Greenland 
now are. Instead of speculating about European glaciers of bygone 
days, let us make an imaginary visit to Greenland. 

Illustrations From Greenland. It might be an interesting question 
for debate whether the glaciers of Greenland are in Greenland or whether 
Greenland is in the glaciers ! Greenland is twice as long and many 




Fig. 36. Terminal Moraine and Ice Front Crowding Upon It. 

PJwtofjraph hi/ A. Thorson. 




I'u:. :;T 'J'crniiiial Moraine Beinj^- Wasliod Away by Chuial Stic 
I'liotoijrapJi by A. Thorson. 



AN EXCURSION TO SOME GLACIERS 



69 



times wider than Norway and yet it is covered nearly all over by ice 
and snow. If we were to land anywhere in the interior of Greenland 
we should see nothing but snow, a vast snow field. -Under the snow 
is ice, consolidated snow made into glaciers. Whether this snow or 
glacier lies over the mountains or whether it lies over a flat plain, we 
cannot see, and we do not know. The top of the ice field is over 6,000 
feet above sea level. For a guess, let us say that there are mountains 
in Greenland 3,000 feet to 5,000 feet high and that they are covered 




Fig. 38. Map of Europe Showing Glaciated Area. Glacial Center over Norway (dashed) 
Direction of Ice Movement (arrows) : and Limit of Glaciation (dotted line). 
For Comparison the Relative Area of Greenland is Outlined (broken 
line) over Norway. After Chamherlin and Salis'bury. 



by glaciers, ice and snow, 2,000 to 5,000 feet thick. Where did all 
this ice come from? There is just one answer, — it came down year after 
year as snow. Along the west coast of Greenland some land extends 
beyond the edge of the ice or out from the end of it. The mountains 
in places stick out or up through the ice. In places the edge of the 
glacier is building moraines along the shore or a little way back from 
the shore in the mountain valleys. In other places the glacier pushes 



70 THE t^TORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

out its end or front into the sea. The east coast of Greenland is a 
great glacial ice shore covering up the land shore entirely. 

When the Norsemen discovered Greenland and settled there, they 
very evidently discovered and settled on the east coast. That was in 
A. D. 983. There must have been more land showing and less ice on 
the east coast then than now. There probably w^as less land and more 
ice on the west coast then than now. At least the ice on the west 
coast is retreating, at the present time. The wide, flat looking area of 
glacier on Greenland is called a continental type of glacier, as com- 
pared to the mountain type or alpine type, such as those now seen in 
Norway. The continental type of glacier is made of snow piling up 
in the interior and then flowing out by flattening due to its own weight. 




Fm. .31). Angular ()ii( lines. Not Passed Over by the Ice Sheet. 
Plioto(jj(ii)h by Prof. T. C. Cliaiabcrliii. 

about the way cold molasses or thick tar would flow on a flat surface, 
only the movement of ice in glaciers is very slow. 

In order to see how the Greenland glacier moves and how its 
surface edge melts away, we would need to visit it year after year to 
note its changes of front, and even then we could not get under the 
glacier to see how it works or moves over the land. We can only see 
the glacier at work at its edge. Greenland has not only a glacier great 
in area, but its glaciers make the bergs in the Atlantic. To measure 
up just how big an affair "Greenland's Icy Mountains" are, we need 
to add to the 700,000 sciiujre miles of Greenland's glaciers the innumer- 



AN EXCURSION TO SOME GLACIERS 



71 



able icebergs of the north Atlantic Ocean, Icebergs are all fresh, they 
are never of salt water ice. They break off, acres at once, from the edge 
of Greenland and flow away into the sea. 

Imagine now that the snow that falls on Greenland were to fall 
on Canada. Imagine that this snow compacted, as of course it would 




Fig. 40. Smooth Outlines, Showing Effects of Moving Ice. 
Photograph bij Prof. T. C. Chaniherlin. 



in Canada as it does in Greenland. Imagine further that it flattened 
by flawing out around the sides, and that none of its ice was dissipated 
as bergs into the ocean, then Avhere would Minnesota be? That is just 
about what happened more than once in the so-called Ice Age. 



CHAPTER VI 

EXCURSIONS IN THE FIELD 

Among the Boulders. Everyone has noticed boulders scattered over 
the prairies, — big boulders sometimes weighing several tons and smaller 
ones of all sizes down to "cobbles" weighing a few ounces, and pebbles 
of the size of marbles, and finally gravel and fine sand. A little study 
of the soil will show that it also is made up largely of tiny particles or 
grains of sand which are boulders reduced to small size. And the familiar 
clay which is so common a feature of the soil a little below the surface 
is but the still finer particles of broken rock so finely ground or pul- 
V'erized as to make the separate particles not able to be seen without 




Fig 41. A Joint Moraine Formed by the Meeting of Two (Jlaciers. 
Phofo(jr(iph hy Prof. T. C. Chamhcrl'ui. 



the aid of a microscope. Boulders are seen scattered sometimes in 
groups or patches, sometimes a single one with no others near, and big 
and little are mingled in great profusion. Sometimes a sand pit is seen 
in which the sand is arranged nicely in layers; and occasionally a stray 
boulder is found in the sand, sometimes many of them. It has also 
been noticed that the boulders are very unlike in kind. Some of them 
when broken look very much like broken glass, often having a milky 
gray appearance. These are called quartz, or quartzite boulders. They 
are among the hardest of all the rocks commonly found in the fields or 
in quarries. It is the same kind of rock as that from which window 

72 



EXCURSIONS IN . THE FIELDS 73 

glass is made. It is so hard that a freshly broken piece of it will readily 
cut or mark window glass. A steel knife blade will leave a black mark 
like a pencil mark on it. By remembering these things you can easily 
tell which are the quartz boulders in the field. 

Another kind which is likely to be found in any group of boulders 
is one which when broken will show a rough surface with little blocks 
having a somewhat cubical shape, and colored pinkish or reddish, though 
sometimes white, and often flesh-colored. The surfaces of these little 
cubes are smooth and shiny, and reflect the sunlight so that they look 
very bright. These little blocks or crystals, for they are really crystals, 
are a mineral called feldspar. They may be so small as not to be easily 
distinguished, and sometimes the little shiny faces are one or two inches 
across. Mixed with these feldspar crystals may be seen little black 
specks or plates. These also vary much in size. When they are large 
enough they may be easily split with the point of a knife into thin 
scales. This mineral is soft and can be cut or scratched with a knife 
point. These are crystals of mica, and when they occur in large plates 
are cut up and split apart into thin pieces and used in coal stoves. The 
micas used in coal stoves are simply pieces cut out of very large crystals. 
The mica crystals seen in boulders are sometimes black, sometimes clear, 
sometimes brown, and sometimes greenish. But they are always soft 
and can always be split into thin scales. A third mineral which is 
always present in the kind of boulder we are now describing is quartz, 
the same quartz as has been before spoken of as making up some whole 
boulders. It has somewhat the appearance of broken pieces of glass, 
scattered through the rock among the feldspar and mica crystals. These 
particles of quartz are sometimes hard to distinguish from feldspar, but 
the faces of the little blocks are never shiny like those of feldspar, and 
it is never in little square blocks like feldspar. Then it may be remem- 
bered that quartz is very hard. Feldspar is hard, but not as hard as 
quartz. 

These three minerals, feldspar, mica, and quartz, make up the rock 
called granite, and these boulders are granite boulders, the same kind 
of granite as is used for making tombstones and for building purposes. 
It is a very hard rock and is not easily broken. The action of frost 
and sun has little effect upon it, and it also takes a fine polish. These 
things make it very valuable for monuments and building purposes. A 
fourth mineral called hornblende is often found in connection with the 
three named, and this is somewhat like mica in appearance. It is, 
however, harder than mica and does not split into thin scales so easily 
as mica and it is generally in thicker masses, and is usually green or 
greenish-black in color. 



74 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



These two kinds of boulders, quartzites and granites, are among 
the most common. These are the more familiar "hard-heads" which 
everyone has observed. Besides these, however, there are others which 
when broken do not present the glassy, milky, or grayish appearance 
of the quartzites nor the flesh-colored, red, brown, or specked appear- 
ance of the granites. Limestone boulders are common in Minnesota, 
and in most of the Northwestern States. These can be known by their 
softer character, and usually by being more affected by the action of 
sun and frost. They dissolve and crumble much more readily than the 
others. A good deal of the soil of North Dakota is made of ground-up 
limestone, and as we shall see by and by this material has helped to 
make our rich wheat fields and also to make our wells furnish hard water. 













■■ 


iWi 


frr^^ 




WIM 


H 


^^^^^^^w 






H 



Fig. 42. A Fragment Far from Home. Pliotograph by C. M. Hall. 



Still other boulders there are which have long, hard names which 
we do not need to describe here in particular, but only to say that 
there are a good many others and nearly all of them are made of hard 
materials so that they do not easily crumble or break. This fact of 
their being hard is important, for we shall see later that this helps to 
explain why they are here. They have not been broken up or dissolved, 
because they were so hard. But a fact that we should notice here is 
that these different kinds are found, scattered almost all over our State 
and over other northern States as well; limestone, granites, quartzites, 
hornblendes, augites, cherts, and many others, large, small, and all 
sizes, mixed, and scattered singly and in patches, sometimes almost cov- 



EXCURSIONS IN THE FIELDS 75 

ering the ground and sometimes few and far apart, on the surface and 
deep in the soil below the surface. 

This great variety in kinds, in sizes, and in the way they are scat- 
tered leads us to inquire how this has all come about, where have the 
stones come from and why are they so different in kind and size, and 
so curiously scattered? Why are huge boulders sometimes found on 
the tops of the hills as well as in the valleys? And again sometimes 
not even a good-sized pebble can be found for miles. Then again it 
is all sand for miles, suddenly changing to black sticky prairie. 

It has not required any great skill in guessing to surmise that these 
stones, these huge boulders, and the great quantities of sand were not 
"made" where they are now found, that is, they did not in the first 
place belong here, but have been brought here by some means from 
somewhere else. These boulders, pebbles, and gravel, and even the sand 
grains are all rounded, while the rocks from our quarries or from ledges 
along streams where the bed-rock comes to the surface, are rough and 
angular. To explain how these things have come about a geological 
story will have to be told, a little fragment of the earth's history, of the 
manner in which a great change took place over a large part of North 
America, and which includes most of the State of Minnesota. A part 
of this story will be told in the chapters following. 

An Excursion to Some Quarries. Just as it is necessary for us to 
see, feel, smell, taste, and hear in order to think about an object, so it 
is necessary for us to see, handle, break, dig, and walk over the fields, 
rocks, soils, hills, and valleys in order to understand the geography of 
our own neighborhood or State. But all parts of our State are like all 
other parts in many respects, and what is true of Minnesota is in a 
large measure true of other States and other countries. Since we can- 
not all visit all parts of our State, and still fewer can visit all the 
States or all the countries, let us first study our own neighborhood, and 
then from this we may be able to understand the parts we cannot visit 
from what those say who have seen parts we have not seen. He is a 
good scientist who understands thoroughly his own neighborhood. Let 
us then go out and pick up a basket of stones from the fields and road- 
sides. Let them be collected at random from the neighborhood, and let 
big and little and all kinds be gathered. If there is a patch of boulders 
in the neighborhood which are too large to be moved, look carefully at 
them where they are. In the collection we have perhaps one hundred, 
maybe two or three hundred, "specimens," yes specimens, for each one 
of these humble stones has its own story to tell, and strange as it may 
seem, scarcely any two of them will tell the same story. Can you find 
two which are exactly alike in shape or size? Or, what is more wonder- 



76 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

I'ul, can you find two in tlie whole collection which seem to be, when 
broken, exactly the same kind of stone? If we have two or three hun- 
dred specimens gathered Irom about the neighborhood, very likely if 
you try to sort them, placing them in piles so as to have each kind by 
itself, meaning by kind those which are exactly alike, we shall have a 
hundred or more piles ! 

Now if you have ever been in a stone quarry you have probably 
noticed that the stones which were being taken out by the workmen 
were all very much alike. If the ledge in which the quarry is located 
is deep, if the wall of rocks is high and you see many layers in order 
you may have noticed that the^y are not all alike, but if you look at 
different parts* of the same layer, following it from one part of the 
quarry to another, you notice it is the same all along. The different 
layers may also be very much alike. You see no such differences in 
these layers, or strata as th6y are called, as you saw in the collection 
you made irom the fields. If you have been in a quarry in Minnesota 
or Wisconsin or Iowa it may have been a limestone (piarry you saw. 
Among the specimens you collected there are probably several lime- 
stone boulders. These, you will observe, are different in shape from the 
(luarry blocks. The boulders are all rounded and smooth, while those 
freshly broken from the ledges are sharply angular. 

If you have been in eastern South Dakota maybe you have seen 
the hard reddish building stone which is taken from the extensive quar- 
ries along the Big Sioux River. This rock is of quartzite, the same min- 
eral as has been spoken of as making some of the "hard-head" boulders. 
This particular region of South Dakota has no other rocks in the quar- 
ries. It is known as Sioux ({uartzite and is famous as a building stone. 
The city of Sioux Falls gets its name from its location near where the 
Big Sioux River crosses an outcropping of this rock. 

Now if we could dig down deep enough we should by and by come 
to bed-rock. In some parts of the State we should find this to be 
limestone, in other parts sandstone, and in others shale. If we should 
go north into Canada, away to Hudson Bay, for instance, or about Lake 
Superior, we should find the bed-rock to be like some of the boulders 
we have in our collection. In some places w^e should find granite, in 
other places (juartzite, and hornblendes, and augites, and porphyries. 
So similar are the bed-rocks in those localities to the pieces or boulders 
which we have collected here, and so much do the scattered boulders 
look as if they had come from some other place, that we almost begin 
to wonder if in some way our boulders did not come from about the 
Hudson Bay or Lake Superior country. In a later chapter we shall 
see that there is reason for thinking that many of our boulders and 



EXCURSIONS IN THE FIELDS 77 

a large amount of finer materials have really been brought from these 
far-off regions. All the boulders, pebbles, and sand-grains of our prai- 
ries and fields have come from other places where the bed-rock is the 
same kind of rock as these boulders. In other words these boulders 
are pieces broken off from the layers or strata of the bed-rock where 
these come to, or near to, the surface. They are fragments which have 



Pig. 43. An Old Valley in Driftless Area of Minnesota. 

been broken from many different quarries in many different places, and 
carried sometimes hundreds of miles to where we find them in the 
fields. Some of the pieces were very large and heavy when first broken. 
In the process of moving they have become a good deal broken, big 
blocks being broken up into small pieces, the corners worn off, and the 
whole surface made smooth. 

When a large rock is broken into smaller blocks there are always 
some small fragments formed, and when a corner gets knocked off 
from a rock by striking against another rock more small fragments 
are broken off. The only difference between boulders and sand is in 
the size of the fragments. A boulder may be broken into several 
smaller boulders, and these may be again broken into pebbles, and 
these in turn are only larger grains of sand. They all get smoothed 
and rounded by being jostled and rubbed against 'each other and 
against other hard things which are in their way, or which are moved 
against them. Indeed, soil and the clays of the fields and hills are 
mostly ground-up rock. The softer boulders are more easily worn to 
powder and broken. The boulders, the larger ones, those which are 
well rounded and smoothed, and which have been quite correctly called 



78 



THE kSTORY of the NORTH STAR STATE 



"hard-heads," are the harder masses which have been broken loose 
from the bed-rock somewhere and by reason of tlieir being so hard 
have not been worn out and made into soil. If you examine the grains 
of a handful of sand from a sand-pit you will find it to be made up of 
hard particles of stone. The grains will be largely quartz grains, and 
bits of feldspar, and other hard minerals. You will generally find but 
few grains of mica or limestone because these are softer and more easily 
ground to powder. 




Fig. 44. St. Peter Sandstone Overlain by Platteville Limestone near Nortlitown. Northeast 
Minneapolis. U. »*^^ Qcologicol Surcctj. 



Because the boulders, sand, and clay of our fields have come from 
somewhere else, have drifted here from other regions, this material is 
called "drift," and the boulders are often spoken of as "foreign" boul- 
ders or drift rocks to distinguish them from the rocks which have 
come from our own quarries or from the bed-rock near where the pieces 
are found. 

All these materials, these many millions of tons of clay, boulders, 
sand, and gravel, and most of the soil also, which cover nearly the 
whole State, are drift, and the time during which this vast amount of 
work was being- done is known as the Glacial Period. It was the last 



EXCURSIONS IN THE FIELDS 



79 



great geologic period before that in which man lives, the period of 
written history. 

Stratified Gravel and Sand in Sand Pits. Probably all have seen a 
gravel or sand pit. Here the little fragments of stone we call gravel 
or sand are often arranged in beautiful layers, one above another. Some 
of the layers are very thin, perhaps only a small fraction of an inch 
in thickness, and again they are several inches thick, or even several 
feet. Occasionally, also, a boulder is found imbedded in the layers. 
The size of the particles in any particular layer or stratum it is noticed 




Fig. 45. Section in a Gravel Pit, Showing Stratified Sand Below, and Coarse Gravel and 
Boulders Above. Photograph hy Prof. Chas. M. Hall. 



is about the same, though the next layer above or below may be much 
finer or coarser. If we follow the line of one layer either way for some 
distance we may notice that in some cases the grains become coarser 
as we proceed, or they may become finer; and many times we see that 
a layer becomes thinner and thinner in one direction and finally ceases 
entirely. 

Each of the grains of sand and gravel, however small, and every 
boulder and cobble, was once part of a larger rock. These tiny bits 



80 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

are what is left of huge rock-masses torn or broken from ledges some- 
where, and brought here and left as we now find them. It is clear that 
these layers of sand and gravel w^ere deposited by water. The water 
was that from the melting of the great ice sheets. The tiny grains are 
what remain of large boulders and fragments carried and broken by 
the ice. 




a. Su])eiior National Forest, Ely. Falls of Isabella 
River; Kawishiwi River; Gabro Lake. 



82 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




Fig. 



46. Map of Minnesota Showing Distribution of Forest and Prairie. 
After Warren Upham and Frederic K. Butters. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE PRAIRIES AND THE FORESTS 

Land and Plant Provinces. Why are the prairies prairie and the 
forests forest? Minnesota as a whole is a great, gently undulating 
plain. There are no rugged mountains within its borders. There are 
hills in the northeastern portion of the State that are old, worn-down 
remnants of mountain ranges, but nothing that compares with the rugged 
highlands of the western portion of the continent. The land surface 
of Minnesota possesses great diversity, and there are many extremely 
interesting landscape features, but no real mountains. There are about 
all the types of hills that exist anywhere, but they are all parts of the 
great general plain of the State. The land surface is flat, gently undu- 
lating, gently rolling, or roughly rolling. 

In relation to vegetation, there are three great types of landscape. 
These are (a) prairie, (b) forest, (c) swamp, or wet lands. Just as 
there are reasons why every landscape has its particular form, so 
there are reasons for each plant province. In a general way the southern 
and western portions of the State are prairie, the northern and eastern 
portions are forest. Portions of northern and northeastern Minnesota 
are wet or swamp. Most of the swamp or wet lands are related to the 
forest province. 

There are therefore really two great plant provinces of the State, 
the prairie and the forest. We may now ask. Why are the prairies 
prairie and the forests forest? 

Climate the Controlling Factor. The plains that are prairie do 
not differ in their character as landscapes from the plains that are 
forest. They are the same plains. Climate has a controlling influence 
in the struggle that has been going on for ages between the prairie 
grasses and the forest trees. 

We do find trees scattered here and there over the prairie region 
in Minnesota, and we do find prairie grasses in small patches nearly 
everywhere in the forested regions. The trees and grasses scatter their 
seeds. In one place young trees grow up and in another the grasses 
choke them out. How does this happen? 

Take, for instance, a place where fire has burned so intensely as 
to kill out everything, both trees and grasses. The wind soon blows 
into that place seeds of the poplar, the cottonwood, and the willow, 
those pioneer trees in natural reforestation. The birds bring in seeds 
of fruit trees and bushes, the cherry, the huckleberry, the raspberry, 

83 



84 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



and blackberry. The wind and the birds also bring in weed and grass 
seeds, "fire weed/' golden rod, asters, and several kinds of grasses. 
Seeds drift in with the snow. In the spring they germinate and begin 
to grow. If there is plent}^ of moisture in the soil all the season through 
and moisture in the air, the young trees prosper. They soon grow up 
and spread their branches. They shade the ground and smother the 
weeds and grasses from under them. 




Fig. 47. Road in Itasca State Park Leading from Douglas liOdge to Forestry School. 
Photo(jrai)h by M. Hcinzelman. 

If on the other hand there are dry spells in the growing season 
when dry winds sweep away the dews from the leaves and parch the 
ground, the grasses with their shallow growth on the ground have first 
chance to gather whatever moisture there is. The trees then are choked 
out and grasses survive. Thus is a prairie formed. It is as hard for 
a young tree to start in the prairie sod as it is for grass to grow in 
the shade of a forest. The trees that do grow here and there on the 
prairie are in ravines, on north slopes, on the leeward of lakes, on 
islands ; in short, trees grow on the prairies where they are in some way 
favored and protected from the dry winds. A clump of trees may grow 



THE PRAIRIES AND THE FORESTS 



85 



around a spring or along a permanent stream. The patches of prairie 
grasses in the forested regions are on sunburned south slopes, on coarse 
dry soils, or on the windswept spots where now and then the dry winds 
make the growth of trees very hard. 

Trees can be grown almost anywhere, even on the Minnesota 
prairies, by cultivating the grass away from them and protecting them 
from fire, and cattle, and other stock until they are well started so 
that they shade the land. Cut away all the trees and brush in the 
forests of Minnesota, and grasses and weeds grow up in their place for 
a time. If, however, this land is left uncultivated, young trees and 




Fig. 48. Second Growth Hardwood on Lake-washed Till, South of International Falls. 



bushes soon begin to appear and in time the land Avill be again covered 
with a forest. 

The Struggle Between Prairie and Forest. The amount and dis- 
tribution of rainfall agrees only in a general way with the distribution 
of prairie and forest. The w^estern prairie extends into southeastern 
Minnesota, into the wettest area of the State. The eastern forest extends 
into nearly the driest area in northwestern Minnesota. Besides the 
amount of rainfall, there is another matter which is important — humid- 
ity, the amount of moisture in the air. The humidity affects vegetation. 

The velocity or swiftness of the drying winds also affects vegeta- 
tion, for the swift winds dry up the ground many' times faster than a 
slow breeze does. The rule is that the drying power of the wind in- 
creases as the square (v^) of its velocity, that is, if the velocity of the 



86 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



1 




^^^H 


\^^ 


^^^^^H 


: mX 


1 




^^^H 





THE PRAIRIES AND THE FORESTS 87 

wind is doubled, the drying power becomes four times as great. If 
the velocity is increased threefold, the drying power becomes nine times 
as great. There are generally stronger winds in northwestern and 
southern Minnesota than in the northern and northeastern portions of 
the State. 

The Hardwood Belt. The struggle for dominance between prairie 
and forest has been going on for centuries in Minnesota, between the 
westerly dry winds and the easterly moist winds. The belt of hardwood 
trees may be compared to a battle line between grass and tree. The 
solid prairie is on the west of it and the well-established forest is east 
of it. There are patches of hardwood forest and scattered hardwood 
trees also, all through the area of conifers or pine forest. The pines 
and other conifers, tamarack, spruce, balsam, fir, etc., are not pioneers 
in natural reforestation such as the poplar and willow are. These cone 
bearing trees bear winged seeds which the wind often carries long 
distances, but if these seeds fall in an open field or on a burned over 
area, they do not thrive. The young pines and spruce trees are what 
the botanist calls ''tolerant," which is another way of saying they are 
neighborly to other trees, that is, they can groAV in the shade of other 
trees. Indeed they do not thrive anywhere else than in the shade until 
they become rather tall trees. 

When a pine forest is cut down and then burned over, as usually 
happens in Minnesota, that land does not grow up again to pine. "Wil- 
lows, poplar, cherry, birch, alder, and perhaps later also oaks, basswood, 
and maple, grow up. After a young forest with its shade has occupied 
the place of the late pine forest, then in case pine seeds are carried in 
by the wind, young pines grow up and in time these will overtop the 
other trees and make a dense pine forest again. The area marked on 
figure 46 as coniferous forest may be looked upon as an old, long-estab- 
lished forested region. 

When a prairie is burned over or plowed up and then left unculti- 
vated, it does not naturally grow up to forest. It goes back to prairie 
grasses again. When forest is cut off or burned up, it does not grow up 
to prairie naturally, but grows to forest again. This is because climatic 
conditions in nature determine in general whether prairie or forest 
shall occupy the region. 

The Stru£^gle on Wet Lands. In like manner as prairie and forest 
contend for supremacy, the sedges and swamp trees contend for posses- 
sion of wet lands. The sedges resemble the grasses, but may be distin- 
guished from them generally by the shape of their stems. Grass stems 
are round and those of sedges are generally square or three cornered. 
The sedges are often called slough grass. 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




I'Ki. :.(». .\(nv\iiy Tine Forest, on Sandy Outwash riaiii. near Cass Lak 



THE PRAIRIES AND THE FORESTS 



89 




Fig. 51. Birch Thicket on Bear Point, Itasca State Park. 



90 



THE ^TORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



In the forested region in Minnesota there are many places where 
the ground is always wet. In such places the ground Avater stands close 
to the surface. Only certain trees that have shallow roots can grow there, 
such as tamarack and the swamp spruce. Such wet land areas which 
have grown up to trees are properly called swamp. In the swamps 
there are very often places where the ground water level is so near to 
the surface that not even swamp trees can thrive. Such a swamp is 
properly called a marsh. A marsh is like a swamp only that it is with- 
out trees and is grown over with sedges. Sedges thrive where neither 
trees nor grasses proper can grow. 







"V' %-s 


./«%>., ; .*' V-if^- , fell's' 


ii&i-:iipii:--lE1 


l'fe,i|iiiiliR 


§^^|g^^^, #t&^'^ ^ ■-■■- 


y\ "I <^ 




i ^m 


.•^- ■ ^:ia,^ ^.-r..:?e%-.*^«.-w.^M-^.^^'..v;:.^^^ 


•y:^._.>. ^^., 



Fig. 52. Hardwood Forest Bordering Small Stream, North of Jackson. 
Photograph hy J. P. Wcntling. 

When swamps and maishes in northern Minnesota are artificially 
drained so as to convert them into grassy meadow lands or pastures, 
willows, poplars, and other trees are kept out only hy effort. In the 
prairie regions, on the other hand, when marshes are drained or dried 
up under natural conditions, grasses rather than trees tend to come in. 
The "crex" grass lands near McGregor and Ude and west of Backus 
are marshes which are mowed for their growth of sedge, out of which 
carpets and rugs are made. 



TEE PRAIRIES AND TEE FORESTS 



91 




Fig. 53. Mississippi River as it Leaves Itasca Lake. Pine and Hardwood Trees on the 

Upland Bordered by Water Loving Shrubs, and These in Turn give way to Swamp 

Sedges and Finally to Water Lilies and Reeds. Photograph hy Brown. 




Fig. 54. Draining a Muskeg Swamp in Roseau County. 



92 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Muskeg. When the swamp or marsh is grown up with peat moss, 
it is called muskeg, an Indian name. The moss makes a thick, spongy 
carpet covering the surface all about under the trees and under the 
tall sedges. This carpet is nearly always wringing wet because the 
moss has a peculiar structure by which it holds water until it is like 




Fig. ").■>. Tamarack Swamp, Itasca County. 



a very wet sponge. To appreciate a muskeg one should walk a mile 
through its thick yellowish-green wet carpet, sinking into it knee deep 
at every step or stumbling over roots and logs that are concealed under 
it. Because this moss helps to make peat bogs, it is often called peat 
moss. Small muskegs are found as far south as the Minnesota River 
near Minneapolis, but in the northern Minnesota forested region mus- 
kegs are more common and they are often miles in extent. 



CHAPTER YIII 
HISTORY OF A PEAT BOG 

Bogs as generally thought of may seem very uninteresting. Land 
owners who have bogs on their lands are very likely to consider the 
only interesting question about them to be how to get rid of them, or 
how to change their character so that the land can be used for fields or 
meadows. In other words, how to get the bogginess out of them. 

The bog lands of Minnesota, however, will probably some time 
come to have great value, both for their productive soil and for fuel. 
Like many other things which we do not know much about, peat bogs 
are likely to be better appreciated and valued when more is known of 
their history and character. 

It may truthfully be said of a peat bog that there is very little that 
is hard to understand about it, and the understanding of it tends to lead 
to its use. 

The Nature of Peat. Peat is the remains of plants submerged in 
water. The plants from which peat is formed are, generally speaking, 
such plants as grow in water. The fact that the plants grow in water 
means that the plant foods which are contained in the water are used 
up by the growing plants. These food substances, or salts, are known 
as nitrates. Without nitrates vegetable or plant remains cannot decom- 
pose or rot. All decay of organic substances, animal or vegetable mat- 
ter, is related to a process which is associated with nitrate substances. 
As water loving plants continue to grow year after year in the ponds 
or lakes, and in swamps or marshes, more and more the nitrate substances 
in the water are used up for food, and less and less, therefore, the plants 
which grow and fall into the water decay. Thus an accumulation of 
vegetable matter gathers on the bottom of a pond or margin of a lake, 
and gradually develops into a peat bed. 

Peat Bogs. A peat bog may be either a marsh or a swamp. How a 
pond or lake becomes a peat bog has been explained above. If, however, 
the bog contains the stumps and trunks of trees that have fallen into the 
bog and been submerged in the water, and imbedded in the remains of 
sedges, grasses, moss, and leaves, this would be called a swamp. The 
logs and stumps are not peat, but they are buried in a peat bed. 

Peat consists of sedges, lilies, grasses, moss, and leaves, and the 
like, all more or less decomposed and packed together forming a ''bed." 
Peat from Minnesota bogs may sometime be an important source of 

93 



94 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

fuel as it is now in some parts of the world. So the swamp bogs of 
Minnesota may sometime be a source of timber supply from the logs 
which are entombed in them. A ton of wet solid peat contains 1,100 
pounds of water and less than 300 pounds of vegetable or "fuel" matter. 
It will thus be seen that there are limits to the value of peat as fuel 
until it has been dried. 

Peat in bogs may represent all degrees of decomposition or rotting, 
from almost perfectly preserved vegetable tissue of leaves and grasses 
to black muck which is the same material almost fully rotted or decom- 
posed. The muck is black because of the carbon or charcoal that re- 
mains. The carbonaceous matter of plants is the most nearly indestruct- 
ible of any of the elements or substances of which plants are composed. 

There are different kinds of peat bogs, according to the kinds of 
plants from which the bed has been formed. The kind of plants in turn 
that grow in any bog is determined by the conditions. In some bogs 
sedges abound; in others water lilies; still again sphagnum moss; in 
some bogs there are logs and stumps of trees buried, such a bog being 
a swamp ; in others there are no logs or stumps, the bog being a marsh. 
The resulting peat bed may, therefore, be made up of any one of these 
kinds of partly decayed plants, or of several of them mixed. 

There are all degrees of decay in these bogs. In some the plant 
tissue is nearly as sound as when it was growing. In other bogs the 
bed is so far decayed that it is a nearly structureless black muck. Peat 
bogs are therefore classified according to the kind of vegetable matter 
of which they are made up and of the degree of decomposition that 
has taken place. 

History of a Peat Bog. Just as there are different kinds of peat 
beds, so the length of time required for the peat bed to accumulate 
varies very much. If the history of a peat bed, as shown by a study 
of its structure, revealed that it began in a somewhat deep lake or pond, 
and plants having slender stems and leaves prevailed, it might have been 
many centuries forming. On the other hand, a peat bed that originated 
in a swamp where trees grew and contributed their stumps, roots and 
trunks, as well as twigs and leaves, might grow and accumulate more 
rapidly. There are peat beds in Minnesota that are 10, 20, and even 40 
feet in thickness. Some of these show by their composition and struc- 
ture that they accumulated very slowly. Probably some of Minnesota's 
bogs are more than 10,000 years old. If a peat bog is drained so that 
air gets into the peat, it will then at once begin to decay. A bed of 
peat that had been 10,(XX) years in forming might become black mucky 
soil in a single century or even less. 



HISTORY OF A PEAT BOG 95 

Cross Section of a Peat Bog. When a peat bed chances to be cut 
through by a railroad grade, a road, or a drainage ditch, so that a section 
of the bed is shown, it is often found possible to determine the history 
of the bed. At the bottom, under the peat bed, may be evidence to 
show what were the conditions before the peat bed began to form. In 
other words, it may be shown what was there before the bog began. 
Where now is bog may have once been the shore of a lake, as shown by 
a deposit or layer of sand and shells. It may have been at one time a 
lake bottom, as shown by shells in a deposit of mud. It may have been 
a shallow bay or slough, as shown by pond lily seeds and roots, or by 
seeds, stems, or roots of other slough vegetation. It may have been a 
marsh or swamp, and later developed into a peat bog; or it may have 
been dry land in the first place, as shown by stumps and roots of jack 
pine or of hardwood trees such as grow only on well-drained land. The 
peat bed itself may have begun from sedges, grasses, or moss, or any 
of the peat forming vegetable matter that has been referred to. 

The successive layers of the peat bed may show the changes that 
have taken place in the history of the bog. It may have been at first 
a marsh. Conditions may have changed so that later trees grew and 
the bog became a swamp. Sedges, grasses, sphagnum moss, and other 
plants may also be found in successive layers, showing the history 
of the series of changes in the character of the bog. 

Peat Beds, Past and Present. Peat bogs have played an important 
role in the history of the past. Many coal beds are beds of peat that have 
been changed into coal. Peat beds are now forming in Minnesota, the 
same as they have been forming during the centuries of the past. The 
story of the formation of the peat beds can be seen in the beds that are 
forming in the bogs of the marshes and swamps, lakes and sloughs that 
form a feature of the landscape today. 

From Lake to Peat Bog. In many places swamps and marshes are 
found with the marks of a lake around them. With the banks and 
beaches of a lake shore all around the edge of a swamp, and a peat de- 
posit from one foot thick at the margin to ten feet or more at the center, 



^^^^#:A^ 





r/Ti^l 



Fig. 56. Cross Section of a Lake Showing Wave-cut Shore (left) and Bog Filling (right). 



96 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

no further evidence need be considered necessary to prove that a lake 
has been transformed into a peat bog and is slowly accumulating a peat 
bed. But there are also many such swamps with open marshes or with 
sloughs, or even clear lakes or ponds at their centers. In fact, every de- 
gree of bog growth can be seen in Minnesota from clear lakes or ponds 
to those overgrown by vegetation until they have become swamps and 
marshes (Fig. 56), showing how some lakes have been and are being 
filled up by growth of bogs around their outside borders, and gradually 
encroaching toward the center. Thousands of w^iat were once shallow 
lakes in Minnesota have become marshes and swami)S in this way. 

From Forest to Marsh. Peat moss, called sphagnum, thrives in moist 
places, and this moss acts as a sponge, holding water to keep itself and 
the place where it grows wet. In the dense shade of a forest, this moss 
will thrive where it could not grow at all if the trees did not shade the 
ground. A growth of such moss a foot or more deep clogs drainage of 
the land and makes it swampy where there would be well-drained ground 
if the moss were not there. Groves of large spruce, of large tamarack, 
or of cedar, with some other varieties of trees scattered among these, 
and all standing surrounded by a foot or more of peat moss, make the 
beginning of a muskeg. As the peat deposit becomes deeper and deeper 
under the growing moss, the swamp becomes more and more wet. The 
trees that now survive are smaller. Gradually the larger trees are drown- 
ed out. This is the second stage of a muskeg. Such swamps are often 
on gently sloping land surfaces that would be dry except for the peat 
bog vegetation which holds the water from draining away. 

With the wider spreading of the muskeg condition and with the 
deeper depositing of peat at the center or where the muskeg began to 
form, an open marsh is formed. This is surrounded by a stunted growth 
of small spruce or tamarack. Outside of the zone of stunted spruce and 
tamarack, there is a zone of trees of larger growth. 

Muskegs of the North. In northern Minnesota marshes and swamps 
spread out one into another, uniting lake bog and forest bog over a 
wide area. For miles in extent covering whole townships, except for a 
few high places which stand as "islands" on the smooth muskeg land- 
scape, what has been called the great Beltrami "Swamp" — really the 
great Beltrami muskeg — spreads out from Red Lake and the Rainy 
River east to Vermilion Lake. On the Mississippi from Hill City to 
Palisade and McGregor at Island and Meadowlands in the St. Louis 
Basin, are other examples of muskeg. 

Muskeg does not, of course, belong at all to the prairie region. The 
peat moss which has sometimes made shady forests over into peat 
swamp and peat marsh cannot grow at all out on the sunburned and 



HISTORY OF A PEAT BOG 



97 



windswept prairies. Peat beds of any kind are not extensive in the 
prairie regions, and those which do occur there are from sedges and 
grasses in overgrown sloughs and lakes. In the forested region, both 
the overgrown lakes and the mossy forest type of muskeg have grown 
up. Those two types of bog are not only found side by side, but also in 
succession. The muskeg or mossy swamp has followed upon the over- 
grown lake frequently, and, again, the growth of muskeg has sometimes 
blocked the streams so that lakes or open marshes have resulted where 



3 






WkL 


In jmM' 1 i i 




H 


■■|ft||^l 


^M^^WH^B 


1 




^M 


Hlli 


W^BS^' 


■HI 



Fig. 57. Cross River Meaiideriug Tlirougli a Spruce Swamp, Cook County. 
Photograph by P. J. Alivays. 



had once been dry, forested lands. The great muskegs which are miles 
in extent in the North are just like the smooth prairie lands in every 
way as to subsoil and landscape features, except that they are overgrown 
with peat moss with peat beds underlying the moss for the greater part 
from 1 to 20 and even 40 feet thick. 

Hillside Bogs. From Mendota to Savage along the Minnesota Valley 
a sloping bog can be seen from the car window of the Omaha Railway. 
There is also a notable one just east of the State Fish Hatchery near 
Mounds Park in St. Paul, which can be seen from the railway or from 
the wagon road. There is always spring water seeping or flowing out 
of the upper side of hill bogs, and a growth of sedges, grasses, or moss 
with willows and other vegetation choking the drainage of what would 
otherwise be streams flowing from the spring. The bog becomes a peat 
or a muck deposit. At Chaska and at Jordan there are such peat or 
muck beds which are used for ''mud" baths. 



98 



THE ISTORY OF THE NORTH 8TAR I^TATE 



Hill bogs usually build up a terrace on the hillside from which the 
springs break out. Occasionally such a bog is built up on a flat plain 
or meadow. In this case a low% broad mound is built up with a spring 




Fig. 58. Raised Bog. The Dotted Line !?hows the Original Land Surface. The Bog 
has Grown I'p Around the Spring. 

issuing at the top. (Figure 58.) In attempting to Avalk toward the top 
of such a mound, one gets into worse bog when he may be endeavoring 
to get out of it. 



CHAPTER IX 
MINNESOTA, THE OLD AND THE NEW 

The Landscape Before the Ice Came. What was Old Minnesota? 
What was the landscape of Minnesota before any glaciers had ever 
crossed it, before its valleys were filled, and its hills were planed off by 
the ice? 

One little corner of the State, that of the extreme southeastern part, 
in Houston and Winona Counties, remains to tell of what was before the 
invasion of ice occurred. Here is a fragment of landscape that was 
not covered by the ice at any time during the glacial period. It is a 
part of Old Minnesota. We may imagine that the old landscape extends 
away under the drift, but its face has been much marred by the ice, 
and if we imagine the drift to be all lifted off from the landscape, the 
old landscape would appear much changed from that which was there 
before the ice came. 




Fig. 59. Sugar Loaf. Near Winona. A Hill of Erosion. 



In the main, the great valleys and highlands of the State remain 
today much as they were, because the ice of the great ice sheets followed 
the lines of least resistance in moving over the landscape, filling and 
flowing down the large valleys and turning aside and going around the 

99 



100 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

greater highlands. However, the smaller valleys were filled and many 
hills were worn off, and in addition morainic hills and other deposits 
were thrown down when the great ice sheets melted. The little corner 
in Houston and Winona Counties remains as in preglacial time, except 
that the work of weathering and erosion has been going on through the 
long centuries of the glacial period and the time since. 

The Old Landscape Becomes New. When the glaciers moved from 
Canada during the glacial period they put a new face on Minnesota. 
They put the same kind of face on Wisconsin and other States at the 
same time. This new face of the land in Minnesota has, of course, some 
features of the old face which it replaced. The higher parts of the 
State on the old landscape are in general the higher places of the new, 
and where the lower land was then is the lower land still. On the old 
surface there were no lakes excepting some bayous along the larger 
rivers. On the new landscape there are thousands of lakes of all sizes 
and depths, — lakes many miles in area down to frog-ponds and sloughs. 
On the old landscape there were many streams and all of them had regular 
valleys of erosion, while on the new surface there are some streams with 
valleys, some valleys without streams, some streams without valleys, and 
in some places there are neither streams nor valleys, only lakes and 
sloughs. 

The drift which the glaciers brought and dumped unevenly over 
the land blocked the valleys, and as the glaciers melted away, the 
water from the melting ice helped to make new rivers either over the 
old valleys or along new lines. Since that time for thousands of years 
the streams have been working at valley making again, but it will be 
many thousands of years yet before the valleys are ^'old" again — before 
all the lakes will be gone, their basins cut across by valleys and ravines ; 
and the hills rounded by erosion ; and deep valleys carved in this young 
glacial landscape. 

Meaning of Old Landscape. The land surface over which the first of 
the glaciers passed in its descent across Minnesota was, as has been said, 
an old landscape. It had deep valleys. In fact, if all the glacial drift 
were removed from the face of the land there would be deeper valleys 
than any that are now seen. The Mississippi Valley below St. Paul would 
be 200 feet deeper than the present valley. Beneath where Lake Minne- 
tonka now lies, 400 feet below the present lake, would be the Mississippi 
River valley. Delano would be on the Mississippi River instead of on 
the Crow. The St. Croix would join the Mississippi at Delano instead 
of jumping across to the old Apple River valley above Stillwater. Ben- 
son, Hancock, and Elbow Lake would be on the Minnesota, and they 
would be more than 400 feet lower than they now are. This old face of 



MINNESOTA THE OLD AND THE NEW 101 



r 



Fig. 00. Valley of Rollingstone River near Minnesota City. 

Minnesota with its deep valleys v^^as eroded and developed from the 
smooth young landscape that v^as lifted above sea level long ages ago, — 
long, long before the glacial period. 

How the Landscape was ''Born." It is spoken of as ''young," this 
land that had recently been sea bottom, because when it first appeared as 
dry land it was ''without form and void," that is, it was a broad low 
land surface on which there were no streams or hills. In fact, there 
were no landscape features. It was young, because it had, so to speak, 
just been born or just emerged from the sea. This new young face was 
formed on the bottom of the sea, being deposited as sediment or mud 
in what is called Cretaceous time. 

The formations of which this part of the continent is made up were 
sediments deposited in the sea that had previously covered this part of 
the continent. This sea is spoken of as the Cretaceous Inland Sea. It 
covered the central portion of the North American continent from the 
Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, during Cretaceous time. (See fig- 
ure 61.) 

Land Covered by the Sea. The changes that the North American 
continent has been through have been very profound. The whole story 
is too long to be told here. It may be stated here simply that during 
Cretaceous time the central portion of the continent, from the Gulf of 
Mexico northward to the Dakotas and Minnesota, and beyond in Canada 
to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean, was sea bottom. This portion 
of the continent became lower relatively to sea level, so that the seas 
came in and covered the land. It must be understood that this change 
from land surface to sea was a slow one and the subsidence of the land 
and the creeping in of the sea upon the land was going on during a 
long time. The river valleys of that part of Minnesota that was covered 



102 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



by the sea were either "drowned," that is, swallowed up by the sea, or 
were brought so near to sea level that they began to fill up with sand 
and mud. It is probable that as long a time was required for the Cre- 
taceous sea to creep in upon the subsiding land and for the valleys to 
be filled up as all four of the glacial stages occupied later. But the val- 
leys were filled on the submerged landscape, and all land of Minnesota 
that remained above sea level was planed down and made flat by erosion. 




^Td. 







Fig. 01. After Dana. 



When later the Rocky Mountain region westward rising and folding the 
land which includes Minnesota lifted again above sea level, Minnesota 
thus came to have a new and young surface, and it was on this newly 
emerged surface or young landscape that rivers cut deep valleys, as 
already noted. 

Remnants of the Ancient Sea Bottom. Some remnants of that an- 
cient Cretaceous land surface still remain. At Coleraine a bank of 



MINNESOTA THE OLD AND THE NEW 



103 



oystershells over the ore bed of a mine is a part of the Cretaceous sea 
bottom. This ore bed belongs to a still more ancient sea bottom which 
will be described later. A bed of coal at Morton is what remains of a 
low swamp of that ancient Cretaceous time. Clay and sandstone con- 
taining leaf imprints at New Ulm and along the Cottonwood River are 
the filling of an estuary like Chesapeake Bay. Many such patches of 
the old Cretaceous lie hidden under the glacial drift of Minnesota. 

In southeastern Minnesota, south and southeast of St. Paul, the 
remnants of the Cretaceous plain or near-plain (pene-plain) are found 
only near the tops of the highest hills. It is easy to conclude that there 




Fig. 62. Valleys Bordered oy Limestone Tablelands near Hampton. 

was in Cretaceous time a pene-plain across where there are now hilltops, 
and that the Mississippi Valley and its tributary valleys were eroded into 
that plain after the Cretaceous Inland Sea had retired from the land and 
before the glacial period. 

In the figure the relation of the Cretaceous plain to the present 
landscape is shown. Only the hilltop above the line AB is Cretaceous. 
Below the level of the line AB, the formations belong to a still more 
ancient time — Ordovician and Cambrian. The line AB is 400 feet above 
the Mississippi River at Red Wing, and low water level at this point is 
664: feet above sea level. The remnant of the old Cretaceous landscape 



104 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

is therefore nearly 1,100 feet or more above sea level. The dotted line 
of the figure shoves the position of the plain on which the ancient Cre- 
taceous formations rested before these had been cut up by streams. 
At vv are shown the valleys as they are today, deeply carved not only 
through the old Cretaceous formation but also into the Ordovician and 
Cambrian below. (Figure 63.) 




Fig. 63. Profile at Red Wing. Dotted line A--B, 11 miles. A— Southwest, 

B— Northeast. 
A-B — Cretaceous plain before erosion. 
V — Later eroded valleys, 
gr — Glacial river gravel. 

r— Recent river floodplain fillings (alluvial). 
River — Mississippi River. 

How the Ice Changed the Landscape. The evidence shows that 
when the first invasion of ice occurred glaciers overran an old forested 
landscape in Minnesota, a landscape on which were many valleys and 
hills, and on which drainage systems were well established. It ended 
leaving a new surface with lakes, ponds, and sloughs upon it and no 
established drainage systems, the former river valleys having been filled 
Lip. Then time changed that young face to an older one. In fact, that 
drift surface seems to have been eroded, furrowed, and gullied deeply 
before the Kansan or second drift covered it from sight and away from 
the weather. 

The drift of this first glacial invasion in Minnesota is a gray drift, 
and very much like the gray drift of the second and of the fourth glacial 
stages, but it is darker colored and has as a rule considerable wood in 
it. The old drift at the sand pit of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul 
Railway south of Mendota is full of wood. The glacier of that time 
tore up trees, soil, and a deep clay subsoil, which it mixed with fresh 
rock flour and other debris brought down from the Northwest. 

Now this poor old remnant of a once grand glacial deposit has been 
hai'd to give a name. It is variously called Nebraskan, Kansan, pre-Kan- 
san, Jerseyan, and Older Gray drift by geologists. N. H. Winchell of 
Minnesota called it the Older Gray drift to distinguish it from the "Old" 
Gray drift of the second glacial stage, the Kansan, and the Keewatin of 
the fourth glacial stage. 

Thus the landscape of Old Minnesota was destroyed, so to speak, 
and a new young face was imposed upon it by a great glacier which 
overran this part of the continent. This new and young landscape at 
once began to grow ''older" by the development of drainage streams 



MINNESOTA THE OLD AND THE NEW 105 

and the weathering of the surface deposits. Four great stages of ice 
invasion have occurred in Minnesota, that is, tiiere have been four great 
climatic periods when arctic or semi-arctic conditions prevailed. Each 
one of these cold periods was followed by a comparatively temperate 
period or stage, spoken of as an interglacial stage. Indeed we are now 
living in the fourth interglacial stage, and for anything we know there 
may be another invasion of ice or another glacial stage, about which, 
however, we need not be worried. While each of the four glacial stages 
was very much like Greenland of today and not like Minnesota of today, 
the interglacial stages had a climate much like our climate now. The 
trees, moss, and animals, as shown by the buried or interglacial peat and 
soil beds, were mostly the same as now live in the region. With the 
advance of the glaciers the muskox and reindeer came south to the Mis- 
souri, and went again when the glaciers were gone. 

There are peat and soil beds found under the drift of the Kansan 
or second period and on the first or oldest drift in southern Minnesota. 
Occurrences of that kind in Mower and Fillmore Counties were described 
long ago by Prof. N. H. Winchell.* Those peat and soil deposits seen at 
New Ulm and other places contain moss, pieces of trees, bones of animals, 
shells and other evidence which suggest muskegs such as now occur in 
northern Minnesota. 

In the iron mines at Hibbing where there are three sheets of glacial 
drift above the ore deposit, two gray drifts from the Keewatin ice cap 
with the red Patrician drift between them, the lowest gray sheet is 
Kansan, or drift of the second stage, and the other two are drifts of the 
Wisconsin or fourth stage. On top of the Kansan is a buried peat bed. 
Such peat beds on the old gray drift were probably hillside bogs or 
iron springs. In the digging or boring of wells in Minnesota peat and 
mucky black soil are often reported struck between the Kansan and 
Wisconsin drifts. Wherever the original surface of the Kansan was not 
destroyed the old soil is found buried under the later drift deposit. 

*Vol. 1, G «& N H Surveys, Minnesota, 



106 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




V///AA 



m 



UPPER MISSISSIPPIAN DEVONIAN 

CRETACEOUS 



SILURIAN UPPERAND CAMBRIAN ALGONKIAN? 
MIDDLE AND LOWER REDCLASTIC 

ORDOVICIAN ORDOVICIAN SERIES 



KEWEENAWAN UPPER MIDDLE KEEWATIN LAURENTIAN EARLIER UNDIFFERENTIATED 

HURONIAW AND LOWER PRE-CAMBRIAN PRE-CAMBRIAN 

HURONIAN 



Fig. G4. Geologic Map of Minnesota and Adjacent Region Showing Distribution of the 

Uock Formations at the Surface. 

In much of the area the bedrock is deeply covered with glacial drift. From the Oeologic 

Map of North America in U. S. Geoh Surveij Prof. Paper 71, 15)12. 



CHAPTER X 
THE ROCK FOUNDATIONS 

Earth's Interior. It is interesting to inquire into the character of 
the interior of the earth, though it is possible for us to know only its 
superficial character. An ideal section, showing all the geologic forma- 
tions in order from the most recent down to the granite "foundation," 
is shown in figure 67. No such section exists at any one place in the 
world, but all the formations represented in this column occur some- 
where at or near the surface. This column shows what would be the 
order of the formations if they all occurred at any one place. 

The "bottom" or foundation in Minnesota is granite, so also it is 
granite everywhere where the "bottom" has been reached. The for- 
mation that rests upon this ancient granite floor is not the same in all 
cases. The younger or later formations lie upon or over those that are 
older, and the higher in the geological column the younger or more 
recent is the formation. Generally speaking, all the stratified rocks 
were formed on the sea bottom, being made up of sediments derived 
from the erosion of other rocks. 

The oldest known rocks are granite and from these original granite 
formations, which it is supposed have appeared above sea level by 
upheaval from forces resident deep in the earth, the oldest known strati- 
fied formations were derived. The sediments in turn from which these 
oldest stratified rocks were formed, were themselves derived from pre- 
viously existing rocks, and so the story goes back to that remote and 
unknown time when first the rocky crust began to be formed over the 
surface of a molten globe. 

In the Beginning. What was the primitive condition of the earth 
when geology first began to be? We do not know, but the consensus 
of opinion among geologists is that in very early geologic time the 
globe was covered by water. In Genesis we read that the Spirit of God 
moved upon the waters and that the seas gathered themselves together 
and dry land appeared. The writer of the Mosaic books probably did 
not intend to write a geological history. Those majestic writings, how- 
ever, gave to the children of Israel a conception of the beginning of 
things, when the earth was, so to speak, young. The dry land appeared. 
This so far as present day knowledge goes, is in accord with the facts 
as to the geologic beginning. 

The crust of the earth it is known, is not rigid, but bulges out in 
one place and subsides in another. The "beginning" of land upon the 

107 



108 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

earth so far as geologic history shows, was the expression of such a 
bulging or elevation whereby a portion of the rocky floor appeared 
above the surface of the ocean. As soon as such a land surface appeared, 
immediately erosion began, and the work of destroying the earliest con- 
tinent began. The sediment from this primitive erosion became the 
early stratified deposits or formations. 

A portion of the primitive North American continent, the oldest 
land in the world, is now embraced within the State of Minnesota. This 




Fig. G5. Granite Exposures at Upper Falls on Snake River, Kanabec County. 

ancient formation is in places concealed by glacial drift. It appears, 
however, at the surface over considerable areas. 

Formation Beneath the Surface. It is much easier to look at the 
landscape than it is to see into it ! We can look up at the stars at night, 
but when we look down, we see only the surface of the ground. When 
we wish to know what is under the surface, it is necessary to dig down to 
find out, and at that, we cannot dig very far. The deepest mines extend 
down only a mile or so beneath the surface, whereupon, it is 4,000 miles 
to the center of the earth. 

What then is the rock foundation under Minnesota. There is a 
well on nearly every farm and wells in every village. Someone found 
out by digging or boring at each place, what kind of rock there is, down 
to well-water level, at least. The rock or earth at the surface is not in 
every place the same. The kinds of rock struck in making a boring or 



THE ROCK FOUNDATION 



109 



digging for a well, is not everywhere the same. A well may be begun 
in a limestone formation, then at some depth it may be clay or shale, 
and then in turn a sandstone formation, but however many different 
kinds of rock formation may be encountered in digging or boring a well, 
and however different any of these may be from the formation at the 
surface in any particular locality, these formations do not differ in 
kind from those which may be found in some other places at the surface. 

That which is found in wells is not different from what may be 
found at the surface somewhere in ledges, bluffs, cliffs, sinks, or other 
rock outcropping. As far as wells and mines are concerned, they appear 
to be in what is only the upper part or surface crust of the earth. This 
is true in Minnesota and in all other places. 




Fig. 66. Granite Exposures on Rum River, South of Onamia, Mille Lacs County. 



The Granite Foundation. "What then is the rock foundation under 
the surface formation in Minnesota? The spot at the center of the earth 
is, of course, the same under Minnesota as under any other place. A 
thousand miles around outside the exact center of the earth, too, may 
be assumed to be all the same, no matter what kind of rocks occur in 
any place at the surface. It may be that all the earth within 50, 20, or 
10 miles from the surface, is the same everywhere in the earth and the 
same under all parts of Minnesota. That is to say, if wells were bored 
deep enough, — 10, 20, or 50 miles, — it may be that the same kind of 
rock would be struck everywhere at these depths. The rock at that 



no 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



GEOLOGIC TABLE for Minnesota. 



c 

E 

N 


Quaternary 


Wisconsin drifti it;.^^^ t^ „ 
P1.S..O.... Illinoian drift.* ^PPer Loess 
irieistocene Kansan drift * Lower Loess 

Pre -Kan san drift 




z 



I 

G 


Tertiary 


(weathered rock surface .clays) 


M 
E 


Cretaceous 


Upper lilobrara shales 
Benton shales 
Dakota sandstone 




7, 


Lakota sands and gravels 

Lower 




I 

c 


Jurassic 






Triassic 




p 

A 


Carboniferous 


? ? ? ? ? 


L ■ 

E 

0. 


Devonian 


Hamilton Wapsipinicon limestones 


Z 


I 


Silurian 


IJiagara limestone ? ? 


c 


Ordovician 


Maquoketa shales 
Galena Decorah, Platteville 
Saint Peter sandstone 
Shakopee & Oneota dolomites 




Cambrian 


Jordan & St. Lawrence sands 
Upper Franconia sandstone 

Dresbach sandstone 
Middle Red Clastic series 

Lowe Keweenawan volcanict 


p 

R 
n 


Animican 


\'. 


T 
E 


Huronian 


\n 

Courtland quartzite &c.R 
\a 




z 




Keewatin 


\ 


I 
c 


.Archean 





Fig. G7. The Two Columns at the Left Show the Geueral Geologic Scale. The Two at 
the Right Show Formations that Occur in Minnesota. 



THE ROCK FOUNDATION 111 

depth would, no dovibt, be found as hard as granite rocks that we know 
at the surface. It would be found to be crystalline rock or maybe of 
crystalline minerals, just as granite is a crystalline rock. In other words, 
the rock deep under the surface everywhere may be supposed to be 
granitic or like granite in character. 

There are some granitic rocks cropping out at the surface at Orton- 
ville, at Morton, and at Granite Falls, at New Ulm, and in the hills north 
of the Vermilion Range. These granitic out-croppings are either pro- 
jecting ridges of the earth's central mass or they are what we may 
suppose the interior of the earth to be made of. There appears to be, 
at least, nothing else under them but just more of the granitic rocks. We 
may safely speak of them as the rock foundation of Minnesota. These 
rocks are known geologically as the Archaean group of rocks. 

Besides these places where exposures of granitic rock occur at the 
surface of the ground, there are large areas where wells that go down 
through the glacial drift come at once upon the granitic rock. Figure 64 
is a sketch map of Minnesota and shows what kinds of rock are found 
either at the surface where there is no glacial drift or immediately 
under it, where there is glacial drift. On this map the drift is ignored. 
Imagining that the drift has been removed, the map of Minnesota may 
be divided into two kinds of rock-surface areas: the areas where the 
Archaean granitic rock occurs at the surface and areas where some 
other group of rocks occurs at the surface with the Archaean at the bot- 
tom beneath the surface. 

The Geologic Formations in Minnesota. There are four groups of 
rock-formation as shown on the map which lie over or above the Archaean 
granitic rock and under the glacial drift. These are called : — 

(1) Mesozoic (Cretaceous). (2) Paleozoic. (3) Keweenawan. (4) 
Huronian. (5) Archaean. 

The Cretaceous. The name Cretaceous includes all the rocks there 
are which belong to the Mesozoic group in Minnesota. This Cretaceous 
has been mentioned in a previous chapter, ''The Old and The New," as 
a deposit made by a sea which extended into Minnesota from the south 
and west. It lies in some places on Paleozoic rocks, in some on Kewee- 
nawan, and still again on Huronian or Archaean. 

Wells that have been bored through Cretaceous to its bottom strike 
one of these other rock groups. Near Morton Cretaceous clay beds are 
found lying on Archaean; near New Ulm Cretaceous sand and clay lie 
on granitic rocks of the Archaean in one place and in another they lie 
upon Huronian rocks, and in still another the Cretaceous formation 
rests upon Paleozoic rock. Near Goodhue and Austin, Cretaceous for- 
mations lie upon rocks of the Paleozoic age. The map, figure 64, shows 



112 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



in the southwestern part of the State, some high ridges of Huronian 
rock and the Cretaceous lies around "them. These Huronian rocks were 
islands in the sea in which the Cretaceous formations were deposited. 

The Paleozoic. The Paleozoic rocks occur in southeastern Minnesota 
and also in the northwestern corner. The Paleozoic formations include 
sandstone, shales or hard clays, and limestones, all these lying one 
above the other in successive deposits. The valleys in southeastern 
Minnesota have been cut by erosion of streams into this group of rocks. 
Valley erosion is still going on. Most of the cutting of these valleys was 
done before the glacial drift was deposited, that is, during the time 
preceding the glacial period. Some erosion of the top formation of 




Pig. G8. Grauile Outcrop at Meyers Quarry near Pierz, Morrison County, Showing 
Horizontal Jointing. Photograph hij Carl Zappfe. 

this group had occurred before the Cretaceous formations were laid 
down. This is evident from beds of these rocks which are found lying 
in what had been ravines and valleys in the Paleozoic group or formation. 
At Minneapolis, a well was bored 2,135 feet deep before striking 
granitic rocks. Of the thickness of formations passed through by this 
well, 256 feet is drift, 754 feet is Paleozoic rock, and 1,125 feet is red 
sandstone of the Keweenawan group. The top of that well is at about 
900 feet above sea level and Paleozoic rocks occur along the Mississippi 
from the Falls of St. Anthony to Fort Snelling at 800 feet above sea 
level. The well, which is near Lake Calhoun 4 miles from the river, 
is bored evidently where there was once a valley or ravine that is filled 



THE ROCK FOUNDATION 



113 



now 256 feet deep with drift. Its bottom is lower than the surface of 
the Mississippi at Fort Snelling, which is 700 feet above sea level. 
The bottom of the Paleozoic rocks at Minneapolis lies below sea level. 

The Paleozoic formations are of lime, sand, and clay that were laid 
down by the sea. There are sea shells in these formations now. The 
sea that made them extended over this region from the south, evidently. 
In fact, the sea shore can be seen now by the boulders with sand and sea 
shells between them at Taylor's Falls. At Taylor's Falls rocks of the 
Keweenawan group stand higher than the Paleozoic and the sea shore 
lies against them. 

The Keweenawan. The Keweenawan group includes volcanic rock 
and red sandstone which in some places, as near Duluth and Fond du Lac, 




Fig. 69. Slate Outcrops on Mill Island at Little Falls, Morrison County. 

have been found in wells in layers, one above another. The red sandstones 
are like the sands of the desert in color, but the sand grains and pebbles 
are assorted and arranged in beds in the way in which water deposits 
are generally laid down. The hills of Duluth are Keweenawan volcanic 
rock and also those at Taylor's Falls and Watab. 

The sandstone rock at Sandstone, and that of Fond du Lac, belongs to 
the Keweenawan red sandstone, the same as that in the deep well at 
Minneapolis. 

The Huronian. Lying under the Keweenawan, Paleozoic, and Meso- 
zoic or Cretaceous rocks, but also occurring at the surface in places such 
as the Mesabi Iron Range, there is a large group of rocks^ slate, schist, 



114 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



and other rocks of similar character which are called Huronian (the 
Lake Huron rocks). The Huronian rocks are folded, arched, and broken 
in the same way as rocks are folded and broken in mountain regions. 
These rocks appear to have been made in the same way as the Paleozoic 
and Keweenawan rocks were made. Some -were sands, clays, and even 
'^ limestones, and others were volcanic lavas that flowed either out upon 
the surface or were thrust into cracks between the other rocks and 
cooled and hardened there. 




Fig. 70. Outcrop of SUtte along the Railway Northeast ol" Deuluim, I'iue Couuty, 
Showing I'arallol Jointing. 

In the folding and twisting of them all into mountain ranges, they 
became hard like the Archaean granitics. The Huronian folded rocks 
and the Archaean between them in Minnesota are what remains of a 
very ancient mountain system that was thrust together and then eroded 
down at the top even before the other groups of rocks began to be laid 
down upon them. 

The Huronian quartzite hills near New Ulm, at Pipestone, and 
Luverne are old mountains which are nearly but not quite worn down 
to their bases. 



CHAPTER XI 
OLD REDSTONE 

In the valley of the Minnesota River in southwestern Nicollet County 
stands Old Redstone, a rock which has endured through all the changes 
since the early stages of geologic kistory on thi^ continent. This rock 
i's located near the village of Redstone, between New Ulm and Courtland, 
projecting into the valley from the northeast side. This monument of 
hard quartzite rock has stood there since the time when the North 
American continent was in its infancy. 

A Remnant of the Ancient Continent. Quartzite, it has been ex- 
plained before, is one of the hardest and most enduring of the common 
rocks of the earth, surpassing in this respect the hardest known granite. 
In fact, granite rocks that lie near Old Redstone and which probably 
at one time lay higher than its top, have yielded to the destructive agen- 
cies of time, and have become rotted and in places removed by erosion, 
while this hill of quartzite stands through all; 

Old Redstone is a conspicuous hill standing out into the big valley 
in which the Minnesota River now flows and which was the valley 
in which the great glacial River Warren flowed during the time the 
waters of Lake Agassiz were drained southward. This hard old rock 
thrusts its head out, embracing an area of about 2 square miles. Of 
course it extends away into the earth, under or through other forma- 
tions, to what extent we do not know. We are concerned now about 
the part that comes to or near to the surface. 

It is a conspicuous feature in the valley, this rugged quartzite hill, 
rising 175 feet above the river and extending out from the northeastern 
side of the valley and turning the river from a direct course. This 
quartzite does not outcrop at any other point along the valley in this 
vicinity, so that Old Redstone stands out with the appearance of an 
isolated block. 

Old Redstone gets its name fittingly from the fact that it is red 
(bright pinkish or strawberry) in color, and its color is so striking as 
easily to suggest the name. It is properly called ''old" because it 
probably dates back to the earliest ages of Minnesota, and it has been 
stated before that the rocks in portions of Minnesota are among the 
oldest in the world. If it is true, as seems to be the case, that the out- 
crops of granitic rocks in the Minnesota and Cottonwood Valleys nearby 
represent granitic formations of Archaean age that once occupied these 
valleys and which have yielded to Nature's processes of destruction, 

115 



116 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



then Old Redstone truly stands as a doorkeeper, keeping tally as it 
were on all the records of the geologic past. If Old Redstone could 
talk, what a story it might narrate ! Let us commune with Old Redstone, 
and perhaps we may hear even his voice of stone, for written on his face 







H 


^Hjj^jl^^ 




9 






^'^/'abr^^>-^^^'^''^Hi^B 






^^B 






LMt^^^C^fa^ 



Fig. 71. Sioux Quartzite Outcrop at I'ipestoue. Photogiopli hi/ J. P. Wcntliiiy. 

and about his base and sides are indeed records of much that has gone 
before. 

About the base of this ancient rock occurs a deposit of gravel of 
Cambrian Age, showing that in Cambrian time a sea surrounded this 
island or peninsula of hard rock. Instead of wearing it down and bury- 
ing its base in sediments, it withstood the waves of the sea and the 
wearing of the wind and of weather. During the long ages between 
Cambrian and Cretaceous time. Old Redstone stood as a great rock 
sentinel above a surrounding plain or neighboring valley. During Cre- 
taceous time, a valley which lay to the south of the rock was filled with 
delta deposits. But the top of this rock appears to have stood above the 
level of these deposits. During Tertiary time, a valley 200 feet deep 
was eroded, cutting into the granitic rocks to the north of Old Redstone. 
"When the great ice invasions occurred during the Glacial Period, this 
hard old rock was twice buried and covered by great glaciers. The 



OLD REDSTONE 117 

glaciers cut slight grooves in the hard rock and striae which are still 
clearly visible were marked on the surface. The striae show by their 
direction (S 33° E) the direction of the movement of the ice. It is 
probable that the sheets of drift deposited by the glaciers extended over 
the top of this rock, but these have been removed by erosion, either dur- 
ing interglacial or in postglacial time. 

Relation to Glacial Valley. The valley of the Minnesota River and 
that of Big Cottonwood River, which enters the Minnesota opposite to 
this rock, are very interesting, and the rock itself has played an active 
part in determining the features of the valley at this point. This 
valley, through which the waters of the River Warren flowed, is here 
200 feet deep and is marked by well-defined terraces. The fact that 
these terraces extend several miles up the valley from Old Redstone 
hill suggests that this rock may have been the cause of the formation 
of the terraces. 

The old rock is thought to have been buried under the drift to a 
depth of 50 feet during the second glacial invasion. The rock was in 
the path of the River Warren, and the waters of this great glacial 
stream passed above the rock until its swift current removed the drift 
which lay over the rock. Then the river turned aside and went around 
the rock, as it was too hard to be worn away by the stream. The val- 
ley was gradually cut down deeper and the river continued to swerve 
around the rock to the westward. 

Terraces Formed by Glacial River. This rock now projects for 
half a mile from the left or east bank into the valley. The city of New 
Ulm stands on what was an island in the River Warren about 4 miles 
up the valley from the northwest end of Old Redstone. The cemeteries 
at New Ulm are located west of the city on the highest terrace of the 
glacial Minnesota River. This terrace is about 60 feet below the gen- 
eral prairie level of that vicinity and was formed by the River Warren 
before this stream eroded its channel below the drift of the last, or 
Wisconsin, ice invasion. This terrace plain was the bottom of the chan- 
nel of the River Warren, and it extended all the way across the valley 
excepting for a small island within the present limits of the city of 
New Ulm which stood higher than the flood waters of the river. The 
River Warren was fully 2 miles in width at this time. At this stage it 
flowed over the top of Old Redstone, and eroded away the drift that had 
been deposited upon it. This high terrace extends on the east or left side 
of the valley from a mile above Old Redstone to 4 miles below it. 

A second terrace lies 30 feet below this high terrace, and on this 
second terrace the highest part of the city of New Ulm is built. This 
terrace is in the older (Kansan) drift. Old Redstone raises its bald 



118 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




Vm. 72. Minnesota Valley at New Ulm. 

1. I'raii'ie level and drift surface. 

2. Redstone qviartzite hill in the valley below^ prairie level. 

3. Old river terrace around Redstone hill. 

4. Old island above the Redstone hill. 

a. Lower terrace in front of the island. 

b. Channel made behind the island. 

c. Terraces of same level as a & b. 

5. Minnesota River bottom land, and river meandering in it. 



and polished head a few feet above the level of this terrace, showing 
that at the time the River Warren was at this stage, it turned out and 
went around this hard old rock. This terrace extends for a mile on the 
opposite side of the valley. 

A third terrace lies 40 feet below that just described. This terrace 
rests upon the top of the Big Cottonwood formation, showing that the 
River Warren at this stage had eroded entirely through the drift sheets 
at this point. At the time when the river had eroded to this depth all 
the higher part of the present city of New Ulm was an island. One part 
of the river flowed up the old channel to the west of the city. The bot- 
tom of this old channel forms a part of this terrace plain. On the flood 
plain of the river to the east of the present city the business section of 
New Ulm is built. The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway south of the 
Cottonwood River crosses a triangular tract of this terrace. 

The glacial River Warren during the time it was carrying the 
waters of Lake Agassiz southward eroded this great valley 40 feet below 



OLD BEDSTONE 119 

the level of the flood plain represented by the terrace last described. 
The depots and railway tracks at New Ulm are located on this lowest 
terrace plain. It extends down the valley for 3 miles beyond the Cot- 
tonwood River, occupying a great part of the valley opposite Old 
Redstone hill. 

Glacial River Obstructed. These terraces in the valley in the vicinity 
of Old Redstone are in marked contrast with the valley above New Ulm 
where the valley is a great simple trough or ditch cut into the gently 
rolling prairie. When the River Warren encountered the obstruction 
offered by Old Redstone, its waters were compelled to cut around the 
rock. This served to pond back the waters above the rock and to cause 
a rapids opposite to the rock. The river first formed its channel in 
the younger (Wisconsin) drift, later cutting into and through the 
older (Kansan) drift, and before the waters of Lake Agassiz finally 
were drained away by another outlet this great river eroded deeply 
into the Cretaceous (Big Cottonwood formation). The boulder clay of 
the younger or Wisconsin drift is a tough clay not easily eroded. Below 
this is a loose gravel bed. The top of the older or Kansan drift is also 
a tough boulder clay, and again below this is loose gravel. The top 
of the Big Cottonwood formation consists of beds of tough clay and 
below this is loose coarse sand. 

As the River Warren flowed through the rapids opposite Old Red- 
stone, the swift current eroded more rapidly because a rapid current 
erodes more vigorously. So when the river cut through a more tough 
and resistant formation at some point, the deeper channel thus formed 
would tend to be widened by the rapid crumbling of the looser forma- 
tion underneath and the undermining of the overlying tough formation 
so that the channel would tend to grow rapidly wider. In this manner 
as the successive tougher and looser formations were reached, the ter- 
races were formed. 

An Ancient Landmark. Old Redstone thus because of its great 
hardness and natural resistance to weathering and erosion has stood 
through the long ages since Archaean time, and the first shaping of the 
North American continent. The encroachment of the sea during the 
Cambrian time threatened the hard old rock with destruction by waves, 
but the deposits of sea gravels at its base show that it stood unscathed. 
During the long Paleozoic ages while that part of the continent which 
includes Minnesota was land and subject to erosion of streams and the 
weathering agencies of heat and frost, air and water. Old Redstone 
stood bravely out on the landscape. And when ages later in Cretaceous 
time the sea again threatened to submerge it and bury it beneath a 
deposit of wave-washed sediments, still its head remained uncovered 



120 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

bared to attacks of wind and weather. Finally, after the lapse of yet 
more ages of geologic time, twice great glaciers plowed over its head 
and combed and rasped its hard face, leaving grooves and scratches 
to show how hard this great mass of ice had attacked, polishing the 
bald pate of Old Redstone, and as a last mad effort throwing handfuls 
of drift over this grand old monument. But this covering of drift 
was allowed to remain for but a short time, for it was swept away in 
the early stages of the River Warren and Old Redstone again stood out 
and defied the swift currents of the river to destroy him. And as the 
river continued to pass by, it was compelled to pay its respects by 
bowing its way in a wide curve around the old rock, kissing its sides 
as it passed, and further doing the bidding of the sturdy old master as 
it compelled the stream to build broad terraces to its memory. 



CHAPTER XII 
TRAVERSE GAP 

A Gap Across the Continental Divide. On the western border of 
Minnesota near where the three States of North Dakota, South Dakota, 
and Minnesota meet, two great valleys meet, one. the Red River Valley, 
extending away to the north and discharging its waters into Hudson 
Bay; the other the Minnesota Valley, extending south and east and 
discharging its waters into the Gulf of Mexico. 

These two great valleys come together, or rather separate, at the 
''divide" which is itself, really a valley bottom, — a gap eroded in the 
earth by running water. This gap is a great valley more than 100 feet 
deep and more than a mile in width, — Traverse Gap. In this gap, or 
valley, two great river systems take their beginning or "rise." The 
two valleys extend away in opposite directions like two bottles placed 
with their necks together end to end. 

The Red River Valley is a vast plain and embraces northwestern 
Minnesota and the eastern portion of North Dakota and extends far 
into Canada. Its floor is almost as level as the sea itself. The valley 
of the Minnesota is an old, comparatively narrow channel cut deeply 
into the landscape and having no very well-defined relation to present 
drainage of the territor}^ through which it passes. Its flat bottom and 
terraced sides show that a vast stream has at some time passed down 
its course. 

Traverse Gap and Its Lake. Let us look at this Traverse Gap. It 
is a most interesting landscape feature. Its history is also as interesting 
as a story. Let us look first at the lake which lies in this gap, Lake 
Traverse. ''Traverse" is a French word meaning "through, — crossing, — 
crosswise or contrary. ' ' The lake was named by early French traders , 
but whether it was the "traverse" or "crossing" for canoes from the 
Minnesota to the Bois des Sioux and the Red, or because the lake lies 
crosswise on the map (Upham) or because it crosses the divide between 
valleys, or for all these reasons together, no one appears to know. It 
is a contrary lake any way and it drains in the wrong direction. At 
extreme low water the lake has no outlet, but at the average, or normal 
stage, 973 feet above sea level, it discharges northward by Whiterock, 
S. D. In flood stage, it flows on both sides of Whiterock and floods 
northward. The highest stage known is 976.6 feet above sea level, at 
which stage it lacked less than 5 feet of rising high enough to flow 

121 



122 



THE .STORY OF THE NORTH ^TAR 8TAT 



VTATE 




FIG. 73. Map Showing Part ol" Glacial Lake Agassiz, il.s Outlet Through Minnesota 

Valley, and lieaohes. 



TRAVERSE GAP 123 

south through Brown's Valley (981 feet above sea level) to the Minne- 
sota. 

Stories told by old timers that Traverse Lake has been seen to over- 
flow south to the Minnesota, through Big Stone Lake, and that Big 
Stone Lake overflowed north to Traverse, are only a few feet from the 
truth at least. 

It would not be very hard to cut a channel across from Traverse 
Lake to Big Stone Lake and change the drainage that way. In fact, 
the town of Brown's Valley is built on the sandy filling which the 
Little Minnesota has carried from the prairie to the west into the gap, 
or valley. It is the Brown's Valley filling that separates Lake Traverse 
from Lake Big Stone and holds the former up until it drains to the 
north. At Browns Valley it is easily seen how the Minnesota Creek 
or Little Minnesota River, which tumbles down from the prairie on 
the west into the gap, has brought down and spread out sand and 
mud between Lakes Traverse and Big Stone. In fact, before that flat 
townsite had been made by the stream, Lake Traverse was only the 
upper end of Lake Big Stone. The true head of the Minnesota River 
then was Mustinka River, which flowed over near Elbow Lake, Minne- 
sota, by Herman and Wheaton to the gap and then south through Big 
Stone. Of course, Elbow Lake, Herman, and Wheaton had not been 
thought of then for this was in the early stages, soon after the ice of 
the "Ice Age" had melted off from the continent. 

The Bois des Sioux River headed at this time near Whiterock, 
flowing north to Hudson Bay, when indeed there was enough water to 
form a current at all, but it did not at this time take its beginning 
in Lake Traverse. If now, we go south along this gap to Ortonville, 
or w^e might say, if we should follow this ancient valley across the 
present "divide" between the Red River Valley and the valley of the 
Minnesota to Ortonville, it will be easily seen that at a little earlier 
geologic moment. Big Stone Lake was not there as a lake at all, in 
fact, there was a time when there w^ere no lakes in the Traverse Gap, 
but only a flat bottomed deep valley with steep sides, in which the 
Mustinka River and Jim Creek joined and flowed south through the 
present Minnesota Valley. At this time there was no Big Stone Lake. 
The Whetstone River made Big Stone Lake by carrying in sediment 
until it filled the valley. The process of filling the stream or gap is 
well seen at the mouth of the Mustinka in Traverse Lake. There, that 
river has a wide delta, extending nearly across the lake and it is 
building up this delta little by little, as floods come and go in the 
Mustinka River. 



124 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Now, let US look at this gap. It looks like a great valley or river 
gorge. Where does it begin and to what river does it belong? It is 
not the valley of the Bois des Sioux, for from Breckenridge up to 
Fairmount there is no such valley. The river here lies on a flat plain. 
The Mustinka and the Little Minnesota have not such valleys until 
they reach the gap. The valley at Traverse Gap is older than these 
streams. It was there before the streams. 

Let us look at the gap as a whole. It has about the same relation 
to the Eed Eiver Valley that the neck has to a bottle. The valley is 



Jta.fiiTv.o-reS 



H'-.Y Yv\^Yx\iea.cK 




y ^ x*^ '-i-^-keJ-Ti^c 



cT^-:^- 






Fid. 74. During the Higher Stages the Lake Outflowed Southward. The Lower Beaches 
Cross the Red River of the North. 



wide and open, but at its southern end it converges into the gap. The 
Red River Valley is an old lake bed and the gap is that lake's outlet. 

How Lake Agassiz Began. A glance at the map, figure 74, shows 
the relation of this ancient channel to the lake that once discharged 
its waters southward through it. Better still, a glance over the country 
about Lake Traverse would reveal the record of interesting things that 
have transpired here. If we could go over the country in an aeroplane 
and look down upon the block of country that embraces the place 
where the two bottle-noses, so to speak, come together, the meaning of 
the landscape features would soon become apparent. 



TRAVERSE GAP 125 

In Chapter III we saw how great glaciers had passed over the 
landscape and how many changes were wrought, valleys bemg filled, 
hills planed down, and stream courses changed. In this region some 
very marked changes were brought about. Big Stone, Ortonville, 
Brown's Valley, Tintah, Herman, Wheaton, and Graceville are ''his- 
toric" towns as far as the story of the lands on which they are built 
is concerned. 

Look again at the map, figure 74, the Herman Beach is a prominent 
landscape feature. It made the town of Herman famous ! It will be 
observed that this beach extends west and north, and east and north 
from Traverse Gap. This beach has been traced by Mr. Warren Upham 
from Maple Lake, Minnesota, southward to Traverse Gap and thence 
northward to Duck Mountain in Manitoba, a distance of more than 
700 miles. So, also, Norcross, Tintah, Campbell, and McCauleyville 
Beaches converge at the south into Traverse Gap. All these beaches 
mark stages or levels of Lake Agassiz. The fact that they all run 
into Traverse Gap shows that the lake discharged southward when 
these beaches were being formed. 

Let us briefly note the changes that were wrought in this region 
by the Great Ice Sheet, and how the present landscape features came 
to be as they are today. 

It has been stated before that Traverse Gap cuts across the divide 
between the Red River Valley and the Minnesota Valley. This divide 
runs from Donnelly, 1,126 feet above sea level, west to Graceville 1,111 
feet above sea level, to the south end of Traverse Lake. West of 
Traverse Lake the divide runs northwesterly betw^een Little Minnesota 
River and Jim Creek. This divide is everywhere more than 1,100 feet 
above sea level except in Traverse Gap, by which it is cut across. 

During the Wisconsin stage of glaciation a great lobe or tongue 
of ice extended its way from far north in Canada southward across 
western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, its southern extremity 
being near the present city of Des Moines, Iowa. The Coteau des 
Prairies in northeastern South Dakota is a prominent highland which 
offered serious resistance to the passage of the great glacier. The ice, 
however, did pass over this highland, but the highland served to sepa- 
rate the glacier into two lobes. The lobe which moved east of the 
highland and southward to Des Moines is known as the Minnesota 
Glacier. The lobe which moved to the westward of the highland is 
known as the Dakota Glacier. 

During the retiring stages of this ice invasion, when the glacier 
was sometimes advancing more rapidly than it melted at the edge, and 



126 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

again, melting more rapidly than it advanced, or retreating, a series of 
moraines was formed. 

When the ice of the Minnesota Glacier stood at the position indi- 
cated by the moraine which lies to the south of Ortonville and extends 
northwesterly to the west of Brown's Valley across South Dakota into 
Richland and Sargent Counties, North Dakota, there was no Traverse 
Gap, nor had the Herman Beach been formed, nor indeed had any part 
of Lake Agassiz. The whole country to the north and east was deeply 
buried under the ice. So also that part of southern Minnesota, which 
is now the Minnesota Valley, was beneath the great ice mass. This, 
however, was during the closing or receding stages of the Wisconsin 
glaciation, and the ice was in a general way '' retiring" or melting off 
the landscape more rapidly than it advanced from the north. 

After the formation of the moraine referred to, the ice front re- 
treated or melted back to a position about Graceville and about five 
miles southeast of Wheaton, thence extending northwest across South 
Dakota, and northward to the west of Hankinson, North Dakota, and 
east of Milnor, North Dakota. Readjustments of drainage had to be 
made and new avenues for the escape of the ice waters from the 
melting glacier had to be found. 

It will be borne in mind that the divide lies along a general line 
from Donnelly to Graceville, the south end of Traverse Lake, and then 
in a northwesterly direction into South Dakota between Little Minnesota 
River and Jim Creek. There was, therefore, land lying north of the 
divide off from which the ice had melted. This, in brief, was the be- 
ginning of the conditions which brought Lake Agassiz into existence 
and which marked the opening of the great glacial channel of the Min- 
nesota Valley and the beginning of the River Warren. 

Lake Milnor. At this time Lake Milnor came into existence, — a 
long, narrow body of ice water extending from about 10 miles north- 
west of Milnor, south and east, and discharging through Cottonwood 
Coulee and Jim Creek valley southward to Traverse Gap and the River 
Warren. Cottonwood Coulee is now a flat-bottomed slough from one-half 
to three-quarters of a mile in width. The southern portion of this old 
channel, occupied by Jim Creek, became part of an outlet of Lake 
Agassiz. Lake Milnor was an enlargement of the glacial Sheyenne 
River, a large glacial stream which carried southward the ice waters 
from along the edge of the glacier in North Dakota. A prominent beach 
marks the southern and western side of this lake, the eastern and 
northern shore being the edge of the glacier. This beach is about 
25 feet higher than the Herman Beach,the highest beach of Lake Agassiz 
proper. 



TRAVERSE GAP 127 

When the ice again retreated, a portion of the northward sloping 
plain to the north of the divide was cleared of ice, thus a basin having 
the continental divide for a southern curved side and the ice wall of 
the retreating glacier on the north was uncovered. There appears to 
be reason for thinking that the edge of the ice at one time lay along 
a line from a few miles south of Herman, north and west to Wheaton, 
near White Rock, South Dakota, and east of Hankinson, North Dakota, 
to Wyndmere, North Dakota. At this time the Herman Beach began 
to be formed. The development of a great lake,- however, occurred when 
the ice had again further retreated and Lake Agassiz now became a 
body of water many hundreds of square miles in extent. The lake 
increased in size and depth with the retreat or melting away of the ice 
toward the north. At the time when the great moraine was formed, 
on which the city of Fergus Falls is located, and to which Mr. Warren 
Upham has given the name of the Fergus Falls moraine. Lake Agassiz 
was a sheet of water covering an area probably of approximately 5,000 
square miles. 



CHAPTER XIII 
GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ 

The Beginnings of the Lake. A northward draining valley existed 
in northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota before the glacial 
period. This was the preglacial Red River Valley. The land both 
east and west of Lake Traverse is higher than the land to the north 



Fig. 75. Map Showing Southward Drainage of Lalies Agassiz and Duluth. 

(this must be so since the Red River flows toward the north) ; a high- 
land, the Manitoba Escarpment, extends from the Coteau des Prairies 
northward to Pembina Mountain in North Dakota and beyond in 

128 



GLACIAL LAKE AGAS8IZ 129 

Canada; the continental "Height of Land" lies to the east in Minne- 
sota; the preglacial Red River Valley lies between these two highlands. 
It will thus be understood how glacial Lake Agassiz came into existence. 

When the ice had melted back so that the regions about Wahpeton 
and Fargo were no longer covered by the ice sheet, the front of the 
ice being about where Hillsboro and Blanchard now are, the water 
from the melting ice filled this basin. The waters from the melting 
of the ice caused the basin to overflow, and the outlet was naturally 
formed at the lowest point of the rim. This outlet was by the old 
channel in which Lake Traverse now lies. 

If we think of the great ice sheet retreating toward the north, 
that is, that it melted more rapidly at its southern edge than the mass 
moved southward, it will not be difficult to understand ho-w it was 
that the lake became larger, until it finally spread over a great area 
the extent of which in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Canada has been 
determined by Mr. Warren Upham to have been as much as 110,000 
square miles. Lakes Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Winnipegosis still occupy 
a part of the old lake bottom. These are remnants of Lake Agassiz that 
remain to tell of the glory which has been. 

Relation of Fergus Falls Moraine to the Lake. At the time of the 
formation of the Fergus Falls moraine. Lake Agassiz embraced an area 
of about 5,000 square miles. The Herman Beach was being formed on 
the eastern, southern, and western shores; the ice wall of the great 
continental glacier formed the northern shore. The lake extended from 
the outlet at Traverse Gap to the wall of the ice front as far north 
as Ada, Minnesota, and Caledonia and Hillsboro, North Dakota. Its 
eastern shore in Minnesota was about 8 miles west of the city of Fergus 
Falls and 3 miles east of Barnesville. Its western shore in North 
Dakota was near Wyndemere, at Sheldon, and about 5 miles east of 
Buffalo. Its depth at Breckenridge and Wahpeton was about 100 feet ; 
at Moorhead and Fargo about 200 feet, and about 275 feet at Caledonia. 

The Fergus Falls moraine is easily recognized east of the lake 
bottom in Minnesota by high, rounded, and irregular hills and hollows. 
It appears again on the west side of Lake Agassiz in North Dakota as 
rolling hills or undulating prairies near Galesburg. Upon the area of 
the Red River Valley, however, the materials which were dumped at 
the edge of the melting ice sheet where the ice front was bathed by 
the waters of the lake were washed away and leveled down by the 
action of the waves and currents of the lake and finally the materials 
distributed over the bottom. 

The course of the moraine across the bottom of Lake Agassiz is 
marked by the slightly undulating character of the prairie. The mo- 



130 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

rainic materials were not entirely leveled by the action of the lake 
waters so that the bottom became slightly uneven. This belt of slightly 
undulating prairie extends across the Red River Valley from Ada and 
Rolette, Minnesota, in a westerly and northerly direction to Caledonia, 
Reynolds, and Buxton, North Dakota, and thence southwesterly to 
Blanchard, varying in width from 3 to 6 or 7 miles. 

The undulations in the prairie surface upon the belt of this 
leveled moraine vary from 3 to 5 feet, though sometimes 8 or 10 
feet above adjacent hollows. Over this belt, many boulders are strewn 
and gravel is more common than elsewhere on the lake bottom. Boul- 
ders sometimes occur in chains or elongated patches upon the beach 
ridges, having been carried or shoved up on the shore by ice during 
the winters. 

Where the Fergus Falls moraine is crossed by the Red River 
between Caledonia and Belmont, occurs what are called the Goose Rapids. 
These rapids are caused by the dam made across the river's course by the 
materials of the moraine. Boulders are so numerous along the river 
channel here that boats cannot pass in time of low water. 

Increase in Size of the Lake. The area of Lake Agassiz increased 
by a somewhat sudden or rapid melting back or retreat of the ice 
front; it would seem that the climate must have become w^armer from 
some cause, for the edge of the ice sheet moved back or receded towards 
the north near to where the city of Winnipeg now stands. Thus, a 
great part of Minnesota, which was covered by Lake Agassiz, was now 
relieved of its burden of ice and was covered by the waters of the lake. 
The Dakota lobe of the Keewatin glacier had not yet melted entirely 
from off North Dakota. The Minnesota lobe extended as far south as 
Lake Itasca and formed the hills of the conspicuous moraine of that 
part of the State. 

Still another period occurred when the forward movement of the 
ice sheet was not as rapid as the melting and Lake Agassiz extended 
still further northward to the southern ends of Lakes Winnipeg and 
Manitoba and eastward nearly to the Lake of the Woods. The hills 
forming the moraine which marked the position of the ice at this 
stage of the development of Lake Agassiz, have been named by Mr. 
Warren Upham, the Mesabi Moraine. 

Finally another recession of the ice caused the areas now occupied 
by Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba to be uncovered, a moraine being 
formed along what is now the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg. The 
moraine forms a dam which still prevents the drawing off of the waters 
of this lake. Some of these morainic hills which are partly covered 
by the waters of this lake now form islands along its eastern side. 



GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ 131 

Depth of the Water in the Lake. Along the great ice wall which 
formed the northern shore of Lake Agassiz the waters were probably 
the deepest that they were anywhere in the entire lake. The slope of 
the Red River Valley, which is the old lake bottom, descends from Lake 
Traverse towards the north to the Nelson River outlet of Lake Winni- 
peg, a distance in a straight line of about 700 miles. It will be recalled 
that when the northern ice-shore of Lake Agassiz was at Caledonia 
the water was there about 275 feet deep and 200 feet at Fargo, and 
about 100 feet at Breckenridge and Wahpetpn, and flowed over the 
rim of the basin at Lake Traverse. When the lake had extended as 
far north as the present mouth of the Red River at Lake Winnipeg, 
its depth there was 650 feet ; over the northern end of Lake Manitoba 
about 525 feet; and when the morainic hills which hem in the waters 
of Lake Winnipeg on the east were dumped from the melting ice they 
were left in water from 600 to 700 feet deep. 

The great depth of the water of Lake Agassiz at the ice front on 
this far north shore, and the great amount of material deposited as 
a moraine, may help to explain why Lake Winnipeg has not disappeared 
along with the rest of Lake Agassiz. Deep bodies of water are less 
readily affected by storms and their waves are less active in eroding 
the bottom and shores. The moraine which was deposited at the edge 
of the ice therefore remained as hills below the surface of the water, 
and they were not leveled down when the waters of the lake were 
finally lowered by the melting of the ice farther north. This range of 
morainic hills therefore remains as a dam holding back the waters of 
Lake Winnipeg and the sister lakes, Manitoba and Winnipegosis, this 
group of lakes being the last vestige of the great Lake Agassiz. 

The Southern and Eastern Outlets. During all the time in which 
Lake Agassiz was extending its area the waters were unable to flow to 
the north b.y the present Nelson River outlet to Hudson Bay because 
of the great ice sheet which barred the way. This still lay upon the 
land between the present Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay and probably 
still filled the basin of Hudson Bay. 

That the outlet of Lake Agassiz was southward by Traverse Gap 
and the River Warren, is shown by the fact that the Herman Beach 
extends along the eastern and western sides respectively and along 
the Traverse Gap. Not only does the Herman Beach converge into 
this gap, but also the Norcross, Tintah, Campbell, and McCauleyville 
Beaches converge to this outlet. 

During the later stages of Lake Agassiz and before the opening of 
the Nelson River outlet to Hudson Bay, the waters of the lake were 
discharged by an easterly outlet. This is shown by the fact that the 



132 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Blanchard, Gladstone, Emerado, and other beaclies loop southward into 
the Red River Valley and across the axis of the valley at the south 
end of the loop in marked contrast to those beaches that extend into 
Traverse Gap (figure 74). 

The length of Lake Agassiz from south to north was now about 
550 miles, and its width from Red Lake in Minnesota to Larimore in 
North Dakota was about 130 miles. Its area embraced about 65,000 
square miles in Canada, about 15,000 square miles in Minnesota, and 
about 6,500 square miles in North Dakota. 

Into this vast sheet of water many large rivers poured their waters, 
and to these were added the waters from the melting ice sheet which 
poured directly into the lake. 




Fig. 7G. Gravel in Beach of Lake Agassiz. Photograph hy D. W. Johnson. 



Earth Materials Deposited in the Lake. The melting along the edge 
of the ice sheet, which was the north shore of the lake, caused the 
dumping of a great amount of rock, boulders, gravel, sand, and fine 
silt into the lake, much of which was washed away and spread over 
the bottom of the lake. The rivers also brought in gravel, sand, and 
fine silt in great quantity which also was added to the floor materials 
of the bottom. Some of these streams formed deltas at their mouths. 
All did not form deltas, for there was much more gravel, sand, and 
silt from the melting ice sheet delivered to some of these streams than 



GLACIAL LAKE AGGAS8IZ 



133 



to others. Those which carried the greatest loads of earth materials 
when they reached the lake shore and their currents were slackened, 
dropped their burdens and so formed deltas. 

There were three large deltas formed on the west side of Lake 
Agassiz in North Dakota, and one in Manitoba. Two smaller sand- 
plains were formed on the east side in Minnesota. Those in North 
Dakota were formed by the Sheyenne, Elk, and Pembina Kivers, and 
the one in Manitoba by the Assiniboine River. The two in Minnesota 
were formed by the Buffalo and Sand Hill Kivers. These deltas all 
bear the names of the streams by which they were formed. There is no 
Elk River now, for this was a glacial river only, that is, its waters 
came entirely from the melting ice and when the ice had all melted 
it ceased to be. However, its old valley is left, and the delta which 
it formed. 



BEACH GRAVEL 



SE. 




1.070 



.06O 



J.o.'io feet above sea^ level/ 
i,ooOfeet 



Fig. 77. 



Section Through Herman Beach near Herman, 
a Hill of Till. 



The Beach Gravel here Surmounts 



■t ^^/.'- .h...^ - ..-^>v.- :c^.v» vg3'?r?orv^y^Sc?q>.^v'^/-- •V-t^'Q-';''^''?- r'^k'-'\'-''P''.-^' 



rl,070' 
1060' 



1,05 O feet cibove sea level 




a 1,0 00 2,oooFeet 

<%Mii i .1 . 11. 1 I , I .I. I p] i j - « i V >-fi i J.|| i Mjl ' i.P. i J i ' ,:.at 

Fig. 78. Sections of Herman Beach, Logan Township. The Beach Sand and Gravel Rest 

on Glacial Drift. 



Beach Ridges or Shore-lines of the Ancient Lake. Ridges of sand 
and gravel extend for great distances along the east and west sides of 
the ancient lake bottom. These are beach-ridges or off-shore sand-bars 
piled np by the waves of the lake. The shore did not, however, always 
remain at the same place, as the lake level was lowered by cutting 
down the gap that formed the outlet, and a margin or belt of land was 
left along the edge which was not covered by water. What had been 



134 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

lake bottom became land. Where the waves had once beaten upon the 
shore and built up long ridges of sand and gravel the w^aters ceased 
to reach. The level of the lake became lower and the shore line moved 
in toward the center or axis of the lake. The waves, therefore, beat 
upon the shore at a lower level and a beach ridge was built by the 
waves marking the new shore line. The successive levels or stages of 
the lake are marked by these shore lines or beach ridges, so that the 
old lake bottom, as we see it, is not quite level. Each of these ridges 
is a little higher from the center or axis of the lake toward the shore, 
a series of ridges forming a succession of benches or steps, each one 
toward the shore being higher than the preceding. 

Lakes build up off-shore sand-bars, because when the waves roll 
in upon the shore carrying and rolling on the bottom sand, earth, and 
gravel, these materials are dropped where the waves '^ break" upon 
the bottom. Along the off-shore line where the breakers are formed 
the water loses a good deal of its force, the sand and gravel which were 




1090 
900 



Fig. 79. Profile of Beaches. West of Maple Lake. 



being carried are mostly thrown down, and a "bar" is thus built up. 
To this off-shore bar layer after layer is added till it is built up as 
high as the surface of the water, or even higher, for when the waves 
roll high during storms ridges of sand and gravel are piled up higher 
than the surface of the water, sometimes 15 or 20 feet. In these ridges 
gravel and sand pits are often opened, and the sand and gravel are 
often beautifully arranged and assorted in layers. 

It is commonly the case that the land is not as high back of or on 
the shore side of these ridges. Here, when the waters were beating 
upon the shores and the waves Avere driven over the sand and gravel 
of the off-shore bars, was a lagoon, a place where the water which was 
driven over the ridge formed a shallow pool. Such lagoons are often 
seen on the prairies of the Red River Valley, and the soil in such low 
places is often more ''heav}^" or clayey, and not infrequently marshy, 
while the crest of the ridge is sandy or gravelly only a few rods or 



GLACIAL LAKE AGA88IZ 135 

even feet distant. This is because the coarser material carried by the 
waves was thrown down when the waves "broke" upon the bar, and 
only the finer sediment, such as forms the heavier clayey soil, was 
carried over the ridge and deposited in the lagoon. 

Stages in the lowering and retirement of the lake are shown by the 
succession of beaches from the highest or Herman down to the McCauley- 
ville. Figure 79 shows a section across several beaches on the north line 
of Onstead and Godfrey Townships west of Maple Lake. In some places 
beach ridges were formed. In other places the waves eroded or cut away 
the bank. In still other parts of the shores no traces of the work of the 
waves remain. In such cases the location of the shore at any given stage 
can only be approximately arrived at. 

Figures 77 and 78 show seetions through the Herman Beach. The 
sands and gravels, assorted by the waves, are piled in ridges along the 
ancient lake shore on till or boulder clay. Back of the beach-ridges are 
shallow basins or ''lagoons." 

In figure 78a the beach is shown double-crested. In figure 78b the 
beach is divided into two distinct ridges. This is due to the fact that 
the shore was being slowly lifted during the Herman stage of the lake, 
and what is a single beach southward becomes two or more distinct 
beaches to the north. This is further explained in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XIV 

CHANGES OF LEVEL OF LAKE AGASSIZ 

Stages and Beaches. It has been previously explained how Lake 
Agassiz came into existence by the hemming in of the waters of the 
melting ice sheet by the higher lands which formed the sides of a great 
preglacial valley. These formed the shore boundaries of the lake on 
the east, west, and south, while the great wall of ice formed its northern 
shore. Since the lowest place in the rim of the surrounding highlands 




Fig. 80. Map of Portion of the Herman and Norcross Beaches, near Maple Lake, Minn.. 

Showing the Multiple Character Northward. The Five Herman Beaches Become 

One Beach, and the Four Norcross I'eaches One. 

was at the south here was established the first outlet. And the waters 
must needs find escape to the sea to the south because the great ice 
sheet prevented any drainage toward the north. The first great stage 
of the lake was begun when the ice had melted back to the position of 
the Fergus Palls moraine. During this time the highest beach or shore 
line, the Herman Beach, began to be formed. As has been before 
explained the Sheyenne delta began to be built up as soon as the lake 

130 



CHANGES OF LEVEL OF LAKE AGA88IZ 



137 



began, and its level had not changed much when the Elk Valley and 
Pembina deltas were formed. Lake Traverse now lies in the north 
end of the old outlet channel, near the southeast corner of North Dakota 
and on the boundary between the States of South Dakota and Minne- 
sota. The lake grew larger by the melting of the ice sheet, or the 
"retreating" of the ice wall which formed the northern shore. The 
water remained at the same height during all the time the lake was 
increasing in size, the outlet channel being cut down during the time 
5 or 10 feet. 

The beach which marks the next lower stage or level of the lake is 
the Norcross. At the time this beach was formed the level of the lake 
was about 20 feet lower than during the time of the formation of the 
Herman Beach, the outlet having been cut down this amount. The 
lake stood at this level for quite a long time, as is shown by the well- 
defined shore lines or beaches. Then the outlet was cut down again 




Fig. 81. Diagram Showing the Progressive Elevation of Beaches Northward in Vicinity of 

Maple Lake, Minn. Continue the Lines to the Right and the Upper Five 

Meet in One, and the Lower Four in One. 



about 15 feet, causing a low^ering of the lake this much below the 
Norcross stage. At this level the higher of two Tintah Beaches was 
formed, followed by another lowering of the water-level of about 15 
feet and the forming of the lower Tintah Beach. Again the level of the 
water was lowered about 15 or 20 feet and the Campbell Beach was 
formed. And finally about the same amount of cutting down of the 
outlet brought the level to the lowest stage while yet the waters escaped 
to the south, the McCauleyville Beach being formed at this lowest level. 
Thus a beach was formed at each stage of the lake. 

The names of these beaches are a little awkward, and have no mean- 
ing except that they are names. They were applied to the beaches from 
towns which are built upon the beaches or which are near to them. 
The five names applied to the higher beaches of the lake are the names 
of towns in Minnesota. Other and lower beaches were named from 



1S8 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

towns in North Dakota and Manitoba, as the Blanchard, the Hillsboro, 
Emerado, etc., in North Dakota, and Gladstone, Burnside, etc., in 
Manitoba. 

The next lower stage than the McCauleyville was about 20 feet 
below the bottom of the southern outlet channel, and the melting of 
the ice at the north had allowed the waters to find escape by another 
outlet. At this time were formed the Blanchard Beaches, and it is 
known as the Blanchard stage of the lake. The outlet was probably 
into Lake Superior, thence to Lake Ontario, and by way of the Mohawk 
Valley and the Hudson River to the Atlantic Ocean. The ice had not 
yet melted off from the valley of the St. Lawrence and hence escape 
of the waters by that course was impossible. 

It was noted above that during the time of the forming of the 
Herman Beach the outlet channel was cut down only 5 or 10 feet, al- 
though the water stood for a considerable time at this level. Then while 
the outlet was being cut down 15 or 20 feet no shore line whatever 
was formed. While the water stood at this second level, the Norcross 
stage, another beach was formed. Again the outlet cut down rapidly, 
leaving no beach ridges on the shores because the water did not stand 
at any one level long enough for the waves to pile up a shore ridge. 
This is the upper beach of the Tintah stage. Again tlie outlet deepens 
suddenly while no shore lines are formed, and then the water stands at 
the second level of the Tintah stage while the lower Tintah Beach is 
forming. Then, still again is the outlet cut down rapidly to the Campbell 
stage, and the Campbell Beach. And finally another lowering of the 
outlet to the McCauleyville stage, when the last beach was formed 
while the waters discharged by the southern outlet. 

But the next level of the lake is below the bottom of the outlet. It 
was not, then, the cutting down of the outlet channel which caused 
these changes of level of the lake, for this outlet could not drain the 
lake below its own bottom. It is evident, therefore, that some other 
outlet had been found for the waters at a lower point in the rim of the 
lake. This occurred when the ice melted back at the north so as to un- 
cover a lower place in the surrounding highlands which kept the waters 
hemmed in. This, however, does not explain why the lake stood at 
certain levels long enough for the waves to build up distinct beach 
ridges while the outlet was cut down but little, and then the outlet cut 
down so rapidly that the waves left no shore marks at all. 

The outlet was changed and the old River Warren became an aban- 
doned channel. This is shown by the fact that those beaches which 
were formed after the McCauleyville stage, the lowest stage while the 
waters were drained to the south by the River Warren, run across the 



CHANGES OF LEVEL OF LAKE AGA88IZ 139 

axis or central part of the old lake bottom (where is now the Red 
River of the North) instead of running down along either side of the 
old channel, as do the McCauleyville and the higher beaches. 

Figure 74 shows the relation of the higher beaches formed while 
the lake discharged toward the south and the first two (Blanchard) 
beaches formed after the lake had ceased to overflow southward and 
had formed a lower outlet into Lake Superior. 

The explanation of these rather remarkable things is somewhat dif- 
ficult, and those who do not care to attempt to follow it may omit the 
next few pages. 

Causes of These Changes. The cause of these changes of level of the 
lake is a somewhat difficult one to understand. It is no less a matter 
than changes in the form of the earth's crust, changes in the altitude or 
level of the surface of the earth itself. It has been observed that in fol- 
lowing the beach lines from south to north that they are not simple or 
single ridges at the north as they are in their southern parts, but they 
become double and multiple as they are followed northward. The Her- 
man Beach, for instance, which is a single ridge in its southern portion, 
becomes five distinct beaches near Maple Lake in Minnesota, and still 
farther north in Manitoba becomes seven distinct beaches. And simi- 
lar facts are observed on the west side of the lake. The five beaches 
near Maple Lake are separated from each other by vertical distances 
of 8, 15, 30, and 45 feet ; that is, the highest Herman Beach is there 8 feet 
higher than the next lower, that is, 15 feet higher than the next lower 
than this, making the highest 23 feet above the third one, and this third 
one in turn is 30 feet higher than the fourth, making 53 feet from the 
highest to the fourth lower, and the fourth is 45 feet higher than the 
fifth, so that the first or highest is 98 feet higher than the fifth or 
lowest. And all these merge into the one single Herman Beach in the 
southern portion of the lake. Similarly the Norcross Beach, which is a 
single beach ridge in the southern portion, becomes double at the north, 
as does also the Tintah, while the Campbell and McCauleyville Beaches 
each become separated into three distinct ridges at the north. 

The five stages of the lake, while it discharged its waters by the 
southern outlet, are represented in the southern portion by the five 
beaches named, the Herman, Norcross, Tintah, Campbell, and McCau- 
leyville. These five beaches in the south are represented by seventeen 
beaches in the north. The highest, or Herman Beach, near the old out- 
let at Lake Traverse, is about 90 feet higher than the lowest or Mc- 
Cauleyville Beach, while the vertical distance between the highest of 
the Herman Beaches, 300 miles to the north, and the lowest McCauley- 
ville Beach is nearly 300 feet. In traversing these beaches from south 



140 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

toward the north it is observed that they rise gradually northward. 
They were formed at the water's edge and were therefore in the first 
place level.* The ascent or rise is more gradual toward the south and 
more rapid toward the north. The uplift of the crust of the earth was, 
therefore, going on at the time Lake Agassiz was here and forming the 
beaches, and the uplift, was greater toward the north. 

The movement of elevation of the country at Lake Traverse during 
the time of formation of the five beaches while Lake Agassiz outflowed 
to the south was about 90 feet. On the international boundary at 
Pembina Mountain it was 265 feet. At Gladstone, in Manitoba, about 
350 feet, and 200 miles north of the international boundary on the east 
side of Duck Mountain, nearly 500 feet. 

To explain these remarkable changes of level it is necessary to con- 
sider a somewhat difficult geological problem, that of the changes of 
level of the earth's crust before referred to. This is the rising in one 
place and sinking in another, over large areas, or regional elevation and 
subsidence, called "epeirogenic movements," of the crust of the earth. 

That the form of the earth's outer layers or "crust" is not fixed or 
"solid" is a well-established fact. The sea creeps upon the land, or 
withdraws from the shore as the land rises or sinks, very slowly, to be 
sure, but none the less truly. The movement is more easily recognized 
at the seashore because the sea level forms a convenient base-line for mak- 
ing comparisons. It is thought that the great basin in which Hudson 
Bay lies is being uplifted at the present time, probably a continuation 
of the same great movement by which the beaches of Lake Agassiz 
were lifted out of their level positions. This uplift of the basin of Hud- 
son Bay has been estimated to be from 5 to 10 feet in a century. t 

If the great weight of the vast ice sheet caused the crust of the 
earth to bend down or sink, then the melting of the ice and the flowing 
away of the water would relieve the pressure and so allow it to rise 
again. The ice was deeper at the north and the rise of the land, as we 
have seen, was much greater at the north. 

The Herman stage of Lake Agassiz represents that period of the 
lake during which all the beaches at the north which unite into the 
one Herman Beach near the outlet at Lake Traverse were formed. 
But during all this time the water was pouring out at the Lake Traverse 
outlet without cutting the channel down very much, which means that 
the current was not very swift at the outlet. The elevation at the north 

♦The surface of the lake was not perfectly level, for the waters were drawn 
by the attraction of the great mass of ice toward the north, making the water 
"pile up" toward the north, and hence the shore lines would rise a little in 
going north, but for our study they may be considered as horizontal. 

tDr. Robert Bell. 



CHANGES OF LEVEL OF LAKE AGA88IZ 141 

may be likened to the slow tipping of a broad pan or dish filled with 
water so as to just keep the water steadily flowing out at the side. 
But then there followed a more sudden and widespread elevation which 
affected the whole area of the lake. The whole basin was lifted up, 
which had the effect to increase the rate of flow of water at the outlet, 
and so the channel was cut down rapidly to the level of the next stage 
of the lake, the Norcross stage. 

Here the same process was repeated, the outlet staying just about 
the same during the time that the several Norcross Beaches were being 
formed at the north. These beaches, like those of the Herman stage, 
unite into one in the southern portion of the lake, showing that the 
uplift during this stage did not extend to the southern end of the lake. 
The close of the Norcross stage is marked by another comparatively 
sudden uplift of the whole lake bottom, followed again by the rapid 
cutting down of the outlet channel. 

This series of changes, viz., the uplifting of the northern portion 
of the lake area during the time of each stage while the outlet remained 
at just about the same depth, followed by a somewhat sudden uplifting 
of the whole region of the lake so that the water passing through the 
outlet channel increased in speed so as to cut down its depth a consider- 
able amount, to the level marking the next lower stage, continued dur- 
ing the five great stages while the outlet remained at the south. The 
two Tintah Beaches at the southern outlet mark substages, there being 
a lowering of the outlet between the two periods of the Tintah stage 
when the two beaches were formed. 

Finally, at the close of the McCauleyville or lowest stage of the lake 
while the outlet remained at the south the uplifting of the bottom coin- 
cided with the uncovering of a place in the rim of the lake lower than 
the bottom of the Lake Traverse outlet, and so the outlet was changed 
to the northeast. 

The several beaches at the north which belong to one stage and 
which unite to form one at the south, mark intervals of quiet or pauses 
in the uplifting which affected the more northern region only and not 
the whole area of the lake. This means that the uplifting was progres- 
sively greater toward the north. 

The succeeding beaches, which mark the stages of the lake after 
the water had ceased to be discharged by the southern outlet, are three 
Blanchard Beaches, representing three stages of the lake, each being 
lower than the preceding, the first being 15 feet lower than the Mc- 
Cauleyville Beach, the second 20 feet lower than the first, the third 15 
feet lower than the second, the Hillsboro 12 or 15 feet lower still, the 



142 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Emerado 30 feet, the Ojata 25 feet, the Gladstone 20 feet, the Burnside 
20 feet, the Ossawa 15 feet, the Stonewall 20 feet, the Niverville 45 feet, 
and from the Niverville Beach still another fall of 45 feet reaches the 
earliest level of Lake Winnipeg, and the cutting down of the Nelson 
River outlet has lowered Lake Winnipeg still further 20 feet. 

Let us now briefly review the history of Lake Agassiz. The lake 
first began as a body of water from 1 to 3 miles wide and about 30 
miles long, and was little more than a broadening of the Sheyenne River. 
The melting back of the ice sheet to the position of the Fergus Falls 
moraine increased the size of the lake and the first and highest Herman 
stage of the lake was ushered in. When the ice melted back to the position 
of the Leaf Hills moraine it became still larger; and again the rapid 
recession of the ice to the Itasca moraine increased its area still further. 
And when the Mesabi moraine was formed the lake extended to the 
southern ends of Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba, and still later embraced 
all the vast territory adjacent to these lakes. Most of the melting away 
of the ice occurred during the time of the formation of the Herman and 
Norcross Beaches, as these beaches have been traced from Maple Lake, 
Minnesota, south to Lake Traverse, and north through North Dakota to 
Duck Mountain in Manitoba, a distance of more than 700 miles. 

The deltas which have been described, the Sheyenne, Elk Valley, 
and Pembina, and also the Buffalo and Sand Hill deltas in Minnesota, 
and the great Assiniboine delta in Manitoba, were formed mostly dur- 
ing this earlier time of the lake, as they are crossed by the Herman 
and Norcross Beaches, whereas the others which mark lower levels 
of the lake mostly pass around them, leaving them to the landward. 

The changes in level of the lake were caused by changes in the form 
of the earth's crust, an uplifting of the floor of the lake causing more 
rapid cutting down of the outlet and draining away of the water, the 
successive stages or levels of the lake being marked by shore lines or 
beach ridges. The northern portion was uplifted more than the south- 
ern portion, as is shown by the beaches which become double and mul- 
tiple at the north. Finally the floor of the lake was uplifted so that 
escape of the waters by the southern outlet was cut off and the waters 
overflowed to the east, the ice melting at the north so as to allow the 
waters to escape by a new outlet at the same time the outlet to the 
south was elevated. Successive stages in the level of the lake are marked 
by beaches. 

At the time of formation of the Gladstone Beach the southern point 
of the lake was about as far south as Buxton, the Red River of the 
North flowing into the lake there. The western shore of the lake in 
North Dakota is marked by the Gladstone Beach west of Grafton and 



CHANGES OF LEVEL OF LAKE AGASSIZ 148 

Minto. At the time of the formation of the Niverville Beach the lake 
did not extend south of the international boundary, and the Red River 
of the North flowed into the lake near Morris, Manitoba, 25 miles north 
of Neche and Pembina. The entire area covered by Lake Agassiz was 
about 1101,000 square miles, or an area equal to more than that of the 
entire State of Minnesota, and the greater part of this vast expanse was 
covered during the highest or Herman stage of the lake. The depth 
of the waters of Lake Agassiz above the present surface of the south 
end of Lake Winnipeg during its higher Herman stages was about 
600 feet. At the time the waters ceased to discharge by the southern 
outlet and began to overflow toward the northeast the depth at this 
point was about 30O feet. At the time of the Niverville stage, the last 
before the waters fell to the highest level of Lake Winnipeg, the depth 
was about 65 feet. Finally the ice disappeared, uncovering the present 
Nelson River outlet and the waters lowered to the highest level of 
Lake Winnipeg, and then by the cutting down of the Nelson River 
channel the waters were lowered to the present level of Lakes Winnipeg, 
Manitoba, and Winnipegosis, which remain as a last vestige of the 
once great Lake Agassiz. 



CHAPTER XV 

HISTORY OF MINNESOTA RIVER 

It has been stated in the previous chapter that when Lake Agassiz 
began to be formed by the gathering of water from the melting of the 
ice sheet, the lake outflowed southward at the lowest point of the rim 
of its basin. It was stated that the valley of the Red River of the 
North and the valley of the Minnesota have their heads in Traverse 
Gap, like the necks of two bottles placed end to end. 




Fig. 82a. Minnesota Valley Above Redwood Falls (west). PJwtograph hy J. P. Wentling. 

Retreat of the Minnesota Glacier. The outlet of Lake Agassiz was 
not made in a day. It grew; it grew as the water made it grow, — 
deeper and longer. Where did it begin and how did it grow? Strangely 
the outlet is older than the lake itself. 

It will be recalled that the Minnesota glacier lay upon what is 
now northern Minnesota before Lake Agassiz had its beginning. At 
the time of its greatest extension southward this glacier or lobe of the 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA RIVER 



145 



great ice sheet reached as far south as Des Moines. At this time the 
eastern edge of the ice lobe lay between St. Paul and Minneapolis and 
was reforming the morainic hills that mark the campus of the Agri- 
cultural College and that part of St. Paul known as St. Anthony Park. 
It covered Mendota. 

During the slow "retreat" or melting back of the front of this 
great glacier, vast torrents of ice water developed and flowed from in 
and off the glacier, bearing great loads of sand and gravel and finer 
earth material. Old drainage channels had been destroyed by the great 
ice sheets, — by the Patrician glacier in particular around St. Paul, — 
and new channels had to be formed. (See Chapter IV.) The old june- 




PiG. 82b. Minnesota Valley Above Redwood Falls (east). Photograph hy J. P. WentUiKj. 



don of Minnesota River with the Mississippi above Shakopee had been 
destroyed and the valley from there to Pine Bend above Hastings was 
blocked by hills of drift materials, — boulders, clay, gravel, and sand. 
So as new torrents of water came a new channel had to be formed, and 
thus began to be formed the course of the river by way of St. Paul. 

Outwash Plains Formed. Streams of water coming from the glacier 
and spreading out in front of it, washed out gravel and sand, making 
"outwash plains" in front of the ice. These plains remain as evidence 



146 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

showing where the border of the ice was when the streams came from 
it. One such stream emerged from the ice and formed the gravel plain 
where the fields of the State Agricultural College and the State Fair 
Grounds now are. Another came from the ice south of Mendota. The 
water gathered along the front of the ice and broke across at the 
lowest point to the Mississippi, where the river now runs through St. 
Paul. The ground over which it flowed at first was 100 feet higher 
than that of the present channel. Thus it is seen how a new river 
began through St. Paul to Hastings and how in these few miles a turbid 
stream of ice water laden with silt, sand, and gravel began excavating 
a new channel. It was a long time after that, in years, that the ice had 
melted so that Traverse Gap began to be formed. It was the bottom 
or body of the ''bottle" forming at this time that was finally to have 
its nose in Traverse Gap. 

As the glacier melted back a little way, one large stream came from 
the border of the ice just where Lake Calhoun now is, and another 
came from the ice at Shakopee. These streams combined at Mendota 
and rushed through the new channel by St. Paul. Later the glacier's 
border stood at Carver and then at Belle Plaine, and the streams of 
ice water which formed outwash plains at these places made the early 
glacial River Minnesota. By this time it had cut its channel down to the 
limestone bed or ledge on which Fort Snelling is located and the old 
Capitol at St. Paul now stands. "River Minnesota" is the glacial Min- 
nesota River. 

As the glacier melted back farther, so that its streams could make 
the outwash plains at Ottawa, St. Peter, and Mankato, successively, 
these gravel fans, facing down the valley, show where the source of 
River Minnesota was, — at the edge of the glacier, near its end. When 
the end of the tongue of ice stood at Courtland and at New Ulm, more 
outwash plains developed at those places, as may be seen today, and 
the River Minnesota headed at those points. As the ice retreated farther, 
and the river continued to head from it in large volume, a stream with 
a channel a mile wide was established before the outlet to Lake Agassiz 
at Lake Traverse was formed. The great valley which became the outlet 
of the lake was thus made before the lake came to be. 

Terraces Formed. St. Paul, Mendota, Fort Snelling, Shakopee, 
Carver, Chaska, Merriam, Jordan, St. Lawrence, Belle Plaine, Le Sueur, 
Ottawa, Kasota, St. Peter, Mankato, Courtland, New Ulm, Morton, 
Granite Falls, and Ortonville all stand on terraces of the glacial river's 
making. The river seems to have . prepared good townsites almost 
as if hired to do it. 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA RIVER 147 

The first stage of the valley was wide and flat, and no doubt the 
stream was overloaded with gravel, sand, and mud, which it was carry- 
ing towards the Mississippi and the Gulf. However, after Lake Agassiz 
became the head of the river and served to catch the gravel, sand, and 
mud by settling it on the lake's bottom, the Minnesota had less load 
to carry and the stream could then cut a deeper channel. In doing this 
terraces came to be left along the valley, incidentally. 

Three Stages of Minnesota River. The glacial Minnesota River, 
called "River Minnesota," had two stages; the earlier stage, as already 
described, and a later stage, during which it was the outlet of Lake 
Agassiz. The second stage is called also the "River Warren." It was 
during the River Warren stage that the deep wide valley that we now" 
see was cut, and in which, after the River Warren ceased to flow from 
Lake Agassiz, the modern river or Minnesota River proper began to 
flow and now meanders. 

This relation of the modern Minnesota River to its valley, as the 
channel of a glacial river, was first noticed and described by General 
G. K. Warren in 1868. To honor him for his good understanding of 
the meaning of what he saw, Dr. Upham named the river after him, 
"River Warren," and the valley is the River Warren channel. 

The River Warren had only the modern streams as its branches but 
the earlier River Minnesota had some notable glacial streams as branches. 
One stream came for a while from Madelia, down the Watonwan and 
Blue Earth. Another river came from above Benson, down the Chippe- 
wa. A large one came from near Morris, down the Pomme de Terre 
Valley. For a time a stream came from the glacial border at points 
near Marshall, Sanborn, and Springfield on the Cottonwood Rivers but 
went through Hanska Lake past Madelia. Then later a stream headed 
near Sleepy Eye and went down the Big Cottonwood, directly to the 
River Minnesota. All those branches headed in outwash plains. 

History of the River at New Ulm. Let us now look at the record 
of glacial "River Minnesota," at New Ulm. The Minnesota Valley as 
we see it was the glacial river's channel. The valley from Morton to 
New Ulm, is a mile wide across the bottom and 200 feet deep, with 
steep sides. Such is the valley that the river made where it was not 
obstructed. What it did where it met obstruction is well shown at 
New Ulm where it is a mile and a half to two miles wide, including 
the terraces. 

The struggle of the river against a buried hill of quartzite, — the 
hardest kind of rock formation, — resulted in its making the townsites 
of Redstone, New Ulm, and Courtland. (See Fig. 72.) An old hill of 
red quartzite, now called Redstone hill, standing in the valley below 



148 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

New Ulm had been buried by the glacier's drift and the surface 
smoothed off over it. When the river began, the stream ran right 
over the place where this Redstone hill was buried. When the river 
had dug its channel about 50 feet deep or one-fourth its final depth, 
the top of the Redstone hill was uncovered in the bottom of the stream. 
It made a rapids in the stream and being a very hard rock and a solid 
ledge, the rapids might have remained until now before the Redstone 
hill had been worn down. Not being able to cut the quartzite ledge 
away fast enough in its bottom, the stream soon became shallow and 
wide by cutting away the soft drift materials in its banks to make 
room for the river to pass. This it did for several miles above and 
below the Redstone rapids in the river. It thus spread out on a wide 
gravelly bed over what is now New Ulm townsite. 

In spreading out, the stream got beyond the rock ledge or what 
is now the top of Redstone hill and thus onto softer formations of 
sand and clay. There the stream began cutting down again and in time 
it made a channel south of Redstone hill. For a while at New Ulm, 
there was an island, — first a bar and then higher, longer, and wader. 
The channel or part of the stream west of the island was abandoned 
later and the stream, — now at the River Warren stage.^ — settled into a 
deepening channel on the east side of the New Ulm island. 

When River Warren, — the outlet to Lake Agassiz, — ceased, the 
Minnesota River in about its present volume began. Since it is much 
smaller than the valley, it meanders within the high bluffs but has cut 
the bottom of the valley a little deeper, leaving parts of the River 
Warren's valley bottom as terraces (a. b. c. Fig. 72) in the valley. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE 'NEW" MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

In the last chapter an account is given of the " 
Kiver valley, a valley that was made by the glacial Minnesota River, 
the River Warren. During the time that Lake Agassiz discharged 
southward by the River Warren the Minnesota Valley carried the main 
stream rather than the Mississippi, and might have been called the real 
Mississippi if there had been any men here at that time to give it a 
name. When we speak of a "new" Minnesota Valley we mean to say 




Fig. 83. Valley of Root River, Fillmore County. 

that there was also an ''old" Minnesota River and Valle}^ There 
had been such a valley, but the glacier had filled it with drift. The 
old Minnesota may have been and probably was the main branch of 
the old Mississippi. It might have been called the real "Father of 
Waters" if there had been any names then for those rivers. However 
there were, in all, three main branches or tributaries in Minnesota which 
met to form the greater Mississippi before the glaciers filled their 
valleys, and there are now three main rivers near where the old ones 
were. We may as well call the old rivers by the names of the new 
ones that have taken their places. Thus we have the "old" Minnesota 



150 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



and the "new" Minnesota; the "old" Mississippi and the "new" 
Mississippi; and the "old" St. Croix and the "new" St. Croix. 

The Old Valley of the Mississippi. The new Mississippi runs in 
the same valley as the old river did from Hastings down past Red Wing, 
Lake City, Winona, and southward. This part of the valley was not 
reached by the last glacier at all, but was partially filled in by 
gravel and sand carried by the waters from the melting glaciers to 
the north. The valley is wide and deep, with deep valleys coming 
into it from both sides. The bluffs are 300 to 500 feet high, and are 
of solid rock. The bottom of the old valley is filled 100 to 200 feet 




Fig. 84. Itasca Lake Post Office, Itasca State Tark. 

deep with gravel and sand that was carried in by glacial rivers from 
above Hastings. The cities of Wabasha, Lake City, and Winona stand 
on terraces built in the old valley by the flood waters that came from 
the united glacial rivers — Minnesota, Mississippi, and St. Croix. There 
would be plenty of room for cities in the valley even if there were no 
glacial terraces. The valley as we see it is the old valley yet, except 
that it is partly filled with gravel, sand, and silt. 

The old valley is open for 10 miles in a northwesterly direction 
above Hastings, but is not occupied by the present or "new" river. At 
Pine Bend, or across the river from the large island known as Gray 
Cloud Island, the old valley is abruptly blocked. The drift of a glacial 



THE :NEW MISSISSIPPI RIVER 



151 



moraine is piled acroSvS the old valley, filling it to 250 feet above the 
present river's level. The new Mississippi, the present river, occupies 
a smaller valley which comes into the old valley from the east or 
north side. ' •' ; 

In the moraine that crosses and blocks the old valley there are 
many deep holes or basins along the course of the old valley. Marcot 
Lakes are on the bottoms of such basins. Near those lakes at Westcott 
a deep well was bored and in it bed-rock — the bottom of the old valley, — 
was struck at 510 feet above sea level, or 180 feet below the surface of 
the river at St. Paul. It is thus clear that the old valley runs by West- 
cott, and that the course of the present river by Newport and St. Paul 
is that of the new Mississippi. From Westcott the course of the old 




Fig. 85. The Father of Waters, as it Leaves Itasca Lake. 



\^alley is northwestward across under the new Minnesota Valley and 
under Lake Minnetonka toward Delano and the North Crow Valley. 
The old valley is, of course, filled with drift. The drift is nearly 200 
feet deep where the new Minnesota crosses the old valley, but the old 
northeast bluff is cut by the new valley between Fort Snelling and 
Mendota, and the old southwest bluff is uncovered at Shakopee. Shak- 
opee stands, in part, on the old bluff. At Lake Minnetonka the old 
valley is completely buried. A well 400 feet deep at the lake failed 
to reach bed-rock below the drift which fills the old valley there. 



152 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



The junction of the old Minnesota with the old Mississippi was 
about where Lake Minnetonka is now. It joined the Mississippi from 
the south, and for some distance occupied nearly the same position as 
that of the present Minnesota Valley. The site of the town of Carver 
was, however, on the right side of the old valley instead of the left 
as now. The old river ran under the sites of the towns of Belle Plaine 
and Le Sueur, — that is, these towns are built upon filled in material, — 
with Carver, Merriam, Jordan, Lawrence, and St. Peter on the east 
or right bank, and Blakely, Henderson, and Ottawa on the left or west 
bank of the old valley. 

Formation of Falls and Rapids. Tlie elbow of the present valley 
at Mankato is a result of the new river not following the old valley. 
East of New Ulm a moraine lies close upon the valley. This means 




Fig. 86. The Mississippi a Few Rods Below the Outlet of Itasca Lake. 
Photograph hy Bernard Hilton. 

that the edge of the glacier was here. The ice blocked the old valley 
and forced the glacial river to seek a new course. The glacial stream 
swept across the divide from the main valley above New Ulm to a 
tributary valley at Mankato, and then followed this tributary back to 
tlie old valley. Thus the modern river goes by Mankato to this day. 
The old valley that is buried extended from north of New Ulm to the 
north of St. Peter. 

The new Minnesota Valley breaks across divides in this way in 
several places from Big Stone Lake down. It crosses rock ledges of 
an old divide 970 feet above sea level at Ortonville, and one at 930 



THE :NEW MISSISSIPPI RIVER 153 

feet at Granite Falls, while the old valley at Elbow Lake, as shown by 
a deep well, is less than 800 feet above sea level, and near Benson and 
near New Ulin the old valley bottom was found to be still lower. The 
old Minnesota (branch of the old Mississippi) probably had its head 
near the present site of Detroit. 

The Mississippi in New Course. The old Mississippi had its head 
or source near where Lake Itasca now is. Its valley extended directly 
south. The present drainage from the Itasca region is now far around 




Fig. 87. 



The Mississippi One-half Mile Below the Outlet of Itasca Lake. 
Residence of M. Heinzelman^ 



by Grand Rapids, and then by a valley that was once a tributary of 
the old Mississippi. The old drainage from the Itasca region was south 
by Park Rapids through what is now Crow Wing Valley to Staples, 
and then through Long Prairie Valley to Sauk Centre, down the Sauk 
Valley to Richmond, through Eden Valley to the Crow Valley, down 
the Crow to Delano, and across Lake Minnetonka to Hastiness, as has 



154 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



been before described. "With this original course how did the Missis- 
sippi come to have the course it now occupies? 

Looking at the map, figure 25, it is seen how two of the glaciers 
that moved southward into Minnesota from Canada at the time of the 
last glacial invasion flowed over and covered the original course of 
the river and turned it out of its valley. First came the Patrician 
glacier southward across eastern Minnesota. All the tributary valleys 
on the east side of the Mississippi and part of the main valley were 
buried under the ice. The Patrician glacier came from the hard-rock 




'IG. 88. As It Was. Old Corduroy Koad in Itasca State Park. 



country of Canada, evidence of which is seen in the large and very 
stony moraines that it built. As the glacier advanced streams of water 
from its melting carried great quantities of red sand and gravel away 
from the ice-front and filled the valleys even before the ice reached 
them. As the ice advanced boulders and clay were deposited over the 
gravel and sand. Sometimes more gravel and sand were deposited over 
the surface as the glacier retreated or melted back. After this fashion 
the old valley was filled all the way from Sauk Centre to Hastings. 



THE NEW MISSISSIPPI RIVER 



155 



Slowly the Patrician glacier receded or melted back, i. e., the ice 
melted more rapidly along its southern edge than the mass of the 
glacier moved southward. As the glacier shrunk away streams flooded 
the valleys and to some extent cleared out the deposited materials. 
In this way the Mississippi regained its old course and flowed south 
by its old valley as far as Delano. From Delano, however, the waters 
found their way up the old (preglacial) valley of the Minnesota as 
far as about where Waconia is now. The Minnesota Valley was filled 
with drift between Belle Plaine and Merriam. The glacial flood waters 
thereupon found their way across the moraine to Shakopee, thence to 




.^ 



Fig. 89. As It Is. Auto Road in Itasca State Park. 



Savage and south up the Credit Valley and east to the Vermilion. 
A valley or channel, a mile wide, a monument to the early efforts of 
the "Father of Waters" to find a place for itself, extends across Dakota 
County along the Vermilion Eiver by Farmington down to Hastings, 
where it joins the old valley. The Mississippi, however, did not con- 
tinue permanently in this valley because before the glacial floods from 
the Patrician glacier ceased the Keewatin glacier had begun to invade 
the territory and began blocking the valley again. 

While the Patrician glacier was retreating from the east side of 
Minnesota the Keewatin glacier was advancing up the valley of the 
Red River of the North, and down the Minnesota Valley. This glacier 



156 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



crowded over onto the Mississippi also, covering up the old valley again 
from Staples south to Fort Snelling. This glacier also filled the valley of 
Rainy River, and pushed over the continental divide past Grand Rapids 
to Aitkin. 

The Keewatin glacier came from the limestone regions of Canada, 
whereas the Patrician glacier came from the hard-rock region farther 
east. The Keewatin glacier because of this carried more clay than 
stones. However, there was considerable outwash of gravel and sand 
carried from it by glacial streams and deposited in the valleys below. 
The gravels and sands from this glacier are gray, while those deposited 




Fig. 90. Douglas Lodge, Itasca State Park. 



from the Patrician glacier are red, so that the deposits from the two 
glaciers are readily distinguishable from each other. Both kinds were 
deposited in the valley about Staples. 

With the old Mississippi Valley occupied by the glacier from Fort 
Snelling up to Staples, the streams from the north had to find a new 
route. The ice waters from the melting glacier sent one large stream 
down past Brainerd from the northeast, and another past Staples from 
the northwest. These two united and broke across to the Nokasippi and 
thus past Little Falls to St, Cloud. Below St. Cloud the glacier stood 
across this valley also, so that the stream had to go eastward around 
the edge of the glacier. The course of the glacial Mississippi from 
this point was north of Princeton across to the Snake and the St. Croix. 



THE NEW MISSISSIPPI RIVER 



157 



After the edge of the glacier had melted back far enough to permit 
this the river took its present course from St. Cloud to Fort Snelling 
and across by St. Paul to its old valley above Hastings. 

Rivers Flooded by Waters from Melting Ice. The glacial river 
that made the present Mississippi Valley became for a time a tremen- 
dous stream. The melting glacier sent a flood of w^ater from Bemidji 
southward. Lake Bemidji and Leech Lake and most of the country 
north of Grand Rapids originally drained northward to the Rainy River, 
but the glacier blocked this northward drainage so that the waters 
from the melting ice w^ere compelled to escape southward. Itasca Lake 
drained southward. Thus a great stream flowed past Brainerd. Another 
flooded stream came from the direction of Park Rapids, Sebeka, and 




Fig. 91. Cottages at Douglas Lodge, Itasca State Park. 



Long Prairie, into the Crow Wing and across into the new Mississippi. 
Another came from near Alexandria down past Paynesville, and then, 
because the ice still lay upon the region to the south, swept past Rich- 
mond and over an old divide at Cold Springs, where the Sauk now runs, 
and thus joined the Mississippi at St. Cloud. 

Where the Mississippi and the Minnesota came together they were 
each more than a mile wide, and flowed with sufliciently swift currents 
to carry along gravel and sand. The Mississippi, however, did not 
cut as deep a valley as did the Minnesota, for the reason that the 
glacial flood waters did not continue to pour into the Mississippi as 
long as into the Minnesota. The Keewatin glacier melted back beyond 



158 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



the divide north of Grand Rapids and the Mississippi became a modest 
stream such as it is now. The Minnesota River, it will be remembered, 
Avas the outlet of glacial Lake Agassiz during the long time that this 
lake discharged southward, and during all the time during which the 
Keewatin glacier was retreating from Minnesota. 

The new valley of the Mississippi was cut by the glacial flood 
waters deeper than the present valley, the valley having been partly 



m W-l'^M wwi 



jimi 



jmjAi 



Fig. 92. Arko Lake and Pines, Itasca State Park. 



filled with sand and silt; but the valley is not now as deep as the old 
valley was in the first place. The old valley had no falls or rapids, 
but the new valley has many, — Grand Rapids, Little Falls, Sauk Rapids, 
and St. Anthony Falls, — all caused by the stream being forced to cross 
old divides between old tributary valleys. 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE ST. CROIX RIVER 

Two Valleys Joined. The St. Croix Valley, before the glaciers inter- 
fered with the rivers and their valleys in Minnesota, instead of being 
one valley as now, embraced parts of two valleys. The two parts were 
united when the last of the glaciers in Minnesota forced the upper St. 
Croix to run across a divide and through some rocky hills over into 
the head of another valley, the present lower St. Croix. St. Croix Falls 
and The Dalles were made by the cutting of a new valley from one 
basin to another. It was not the ordinary or normal St. Croix stream 
that did the cutting, but floods of ice water that came from the melting 
of three glaciers. 

What is commonly called the lower St. Croix is the navigable part 
of that stream from its mouth at Hastings up to Taylor's Falls or St. 
Croix Falls. The upper St. Croix was originally not a part of the 
St. Croix at all. It is full of rapids and riffles, — not navigable except 
where it is dammed. The lower and upper valleys look different but 
yet are enough alike so that one might not notice now that they did 
not originally belong together. 

The lower St. Croix w^as originally a branch of the Apple, which 
headed where Taylor's Falls is now. It had been there for a long 
time and had a large valley for such a small stream as it doubtless 
was. The upper St. Croix was larger. It was tributary to the old 
Mississippi. Its mouth was near where Delano now is, and its head was 
near where the St. Croix now begins in Wisconsin. 

The old lower St. Croix A^ alley was deep, and deeper than the new 
valley is now, except just at the head near Taylor's Falls. When the 
Patrician glacier of the last glacial invasion came south across eastern 
Minnesota the lower St. Croix was covered by it down to a little below 
where Afton now is. As that glacier melted back and then re-advanced 
making the great moraines that run from Osceola, Wisconsin, south- 
west across the valley by Stillwater, great outwash plains were made 
near Hudson, Wisconsin, and near Lakeland, Minnesota. In fact, these 
two outwash plains as we see them now were probably connected as 
one, and filled the valley more than 100' feet above the present water 
level of the river. After the glacier had passed over the landscape the 
valley was left nearly filled with glacial drift, and outwash sand and 
gravel. A preglacial valley extended from Afton up to Elmo and 
White Bear Lakes. This old valley is now filled with drift. This old 

159 



IGO 



THE .STORY OF THE NORTH HTAR STATE 



Afton-Elmo-White Bear Valley is now much like what the lower St. 
Croix looked like after the ice had melted away and before the new 
valley of the lower St. Croix was eroded. The old Elmo Valley was 
filled at that same time and remained filled. The old lower St. Croix 
has been partly re-excavated by the new St. Croix River, which became 
established in the old valley. 

Upper St. Croix-Crow Valley. The old upper St. Croix rose on 
high land in northern Wisconsin nearly where it now rises, and flowed 
in an old valley that lies nearly in the same place as the new one down 
as far as Snake River in southern Pine County, running in a south- 
Avesterly direction. From there the old valley extended in a south- 
Avesterly course to Pine City, Cambridge, Dayton, Rockford, and Delano, 




Fig. 93. St. Croix River and Gorge below Taylor's Falls. Photo(jrai)1i hy Broicn. 

at which last place it entered tlie old Mississippi Valley. Even after 
the Patrician glacier had blocked the old upper St. Croix Valley it was 
again opened by the glacial streams which poured from the melting 
glaciers and flooded into the valley. These flood waters washed out 
some of the drift along the old route to the Mississippi, — down to 
Delano. The new valley which the upper St. Croix River thus made 
across the great moraine of Patrician drift at this time is the present 
valley of the Crow River from Rockford to Dayton. It is a deep, wide 
valley in which the St. Croix stream flowed in the opposite direction 
from that in which the Crow now runs. 



THE ST. CROIX RIVER 161 

Glaciers Again Block Valley. Neither the lower nor the upper St. 
Croix were long undisturbed in their new valleys after the Patrician 
glacier left them there. Another glacier, the Keewatin, was growing 
and advancing from the northwest into the valleys of the Red River 
of the North and the Minnesota, as the Patrician glacier was receding 
or melting away across the Iron Ranges in northeastern Minnesota. As 
the Keewatin glacier filled the basin of Minnesota River, pushing its 
way southward and eastward, it reached the old Mississippi Valley at 
the point where the upper St. Croix entered this valley at Delano. It 
then pushed up the low broad basin of the St. Croix in a lobe or tongue- 
shaped mass. This lobe reached as far east as the Wisconsin boundary, 
at Taylor's Falls and Pine City. 

When the eastern end of the Keewatin glacier was in the vicinity 
of the Wisconsin boundary and the old St. Croix Valley was filled with 
ice, the valley from the Wisconsin line to Delano was effectually 
blocked, and the waters coming down the upper St. Croix from Wis- 
consin were ponded, the ice acting as a dam. Just as this juncture, 
when the valley was not able to take care of its own stream, very large 
floods began pouring down its northern tributaries, the Snake River 
and Kettle River. Those flood waters came from the melting of a third 
glacier, — the one from the Labradorian ice fields, — which pushed 
through the Superior Basin westward nearly to where McGregor and 
McGrath now are. The Labradorian glacier came from the northeast 
at the same time that the Keewatin glacier came from the northwest, — 
just during the time of the melting back or retreat of the Patrician 
glacier from between them. The Labradorian glacier began to shrink 
back a little sooner than the Keewatin glacier, and the floods from 
its melting came down against the ice-lobe of the Keewatin glacier in 
the St. Croix Valley while the border of this glacier was in the vicinity 
of Pine City and Taylor's Falls. Very naturally the flood in the 
upper St. Croix then turned along this (Keewatin) glacier's border 
south and sought an outlet into the lower St. Croix as the only way 
out. Then began the washing and cutting of the new valley from 
the old upper St. Croix near Pine City across to the old low^er St. Croix 
below Taylor's Falls. 

Lower St. Croix Valley Reopened. The new lower St. Croix Valley 
joined the Mississippi Valley below Hastings, and the glacial river of 
this valley worked with the Minnesota-Mississippi glacial streams in 
clearing out the drift which had been deposited in the valley below. 
The Patrician glacier with its outwash of gravel, sand, and silt had 
filled both the St. Croix and the Mississippi Valleys. Even below 
Hastings, beyond where the ice of the glaciers reached, the old valley 



162 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



had been filled to a considerable depth, as has been stated in a previous 
chapter, and the clearing out of the drift from the old lower St. Croix 
Valley and from the old Mississippi Valley was a work that both streams 
engaged in, while the flood waters from the melting glaciers to the 
north continued to come down their courses. The river level at Taylor's 
Falls and that at St. Paul are just about the same now, and they were 
just about equal at all stages of the progress of the work. As fast as 




Fig. 94. Lake St. Croix and the Glacial St. Croix River Valley. Photograph hy Sweet. 

the Mississippi Valley was washed out the St. Croix could cut down 
its valley also as far back as the first rock rapids at Taylor's Falls. 
It was merely a matter of clearing out from the lower St. Croix Valley 
the loose drift as far up as the head of the old valley. We have seen 
already that this had once before been a deep valley. With so deep 
a valley below Taylor's Falls the glacial River St. Croix had a rapid 
descent from the higher lands to the north, and it rapidly cut a deep 



THE ^T. CROIX RIVER 1G3 

channel through the glacial drift down to bed-rock where the new 
channel crossed the divide between Pine City and Taylor's Falls. It 
then cut into the old rock divide, and thus made the gorges that are 
now known as The Dalles and Rapids. 

Upper St. Croix Opens Present Valley. The stream that was making 
the new St. Croix Valley came at first mainly from Snake River and 
from the glacial Mississippi drainage which overflowed, as noted in the 
preceding chapter, (The "New" Mississippi), into the Snake. The Kettle 
River next became the main tributary. When the Labradorian glacier 
had shrunken back into the Superior Basin as far as Carlton the St. 
Louis Valley was also re-opened, and this valley brought glacial floods 
from a lobe of the Keewatin glacier which lay over the Iron Ranges. 
The glacial St. Louis River's flood waters could not continue eastward, 
as that river does now, because the Labradorian glacier occupied the 
basin of Lake Superior and extended west to Carlton. The flooded 
glacial St. Louis therefore was turned by the ice wall near Carlton 
down by Moose Lake, and thus down Kettle River to the St. Croix. 
A little later a lake was formed between the ice wall of the Labradorian 
glacier and the higher land at the west end of the Superior Basin. Into 
this lake, known as Lake Duluth, the glacial St. Louis River discharged 
its flood waters. The outlet of Lake Duluth was at this time in northern 
Wisconsin, at Solon Springs, through what is now called St. Croix Lake, 
which is now the head of the modern St. Croix River. That was the 
final flood which completed the new valley that runs from St. Croix 
Lake to Lake St. Croix and the Mississippi River, — the same valley in 
which the small modern river now meanders through The Dalles at 
Taylor's Falls. As the Labradorian glacier shrunk farther back into 
the Superior Basin, Lake Duluth found a new outlet toward the east 
across Michigan, and the water level in the Superior Basin fell below 
the outlet by the St. Croix, and the St. Croix River thus suddenly 
became a modest modern stream. 

Terraces Show Stages of River's History. Going up the St. Croix 
Valley one can easily see how the new valley was made. There is first 
Lake St. Croix, the deep wide channel of the glacial river up to Still- 
water. It is a lake, because its outlet to the Mississippi is choked by 
the deposits in the old Mississippi Valley. The towns of Lakeland, 
South Stillwater, and the main streets of the city of Stillwater are 
on terraces of the glacial river. Above Areola there is a glacial moraine, 
at Sioux Camp Hill, extending down to the bottom of the valley. There 
the glacial stream did not entirely clear the drift from the old valley. 



164 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

The towns of Marine and Copas are on terraces of solid rock on the 
side of the old valley where it has been swept clear by the glacial river 
in making its new course. The high terraces at Copas, South Still- 
water, and Lakeland show how wide and shallow the glacial stream 
was which at first flowed along on the drift which first filled the valley. 
The lower terraces represent the stages of the stream as it gradually 
again cut down its bottom into the old valley. Main street in the city 
of Taylor's Falls is on the bottom of the glacial river at its last stage 
when it was the outlet of Lake Duluth. The later modern river has 
made the deeper channel which goes under the inter-state bridge. On 
the Wisconsin side the terrace which was the bottom of the river during 
the last glacial stage runs along the bank above the bridge. The town 
of St. Croix is on higher terraces corresponding to those at Copas, 
Marine, and Lakeland. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE DALLES OF THE ST. CROIX 

Approaching The Dalles. After leaving Franconia station on the 
Northern Pacific Railway the whole panorama suddenly changes. The 
route from St. Paul has been through a drift covered district in which 
are many lakes and the characteristic hills of a glaciated landscape. 
Immediately all is changed. The train passes into a great river valley 
deeply eroded through the drift into the hard underlying rocks. Along 
the railway are seen sandstone beds under the drift, and hills of lava rock. 

The railroad cut by which the city of Taylor's Falls is entered is 
in volcanic lava rock, which forms also the walls of The Dalles, and 
the fallscarp of St. Croix Falls. The great valley has been cut entirely 
through the drift formations, into bed-rock. Terraces marking stages 
of a great glacial river appear on either side of the valley, at Taylor's 
Falls and St. Croix Falls. 

The Keweenawan formation is made up of many lava sheets which 
were poured out from fissures or great craters during early geologic 
periods. These preceded the Cambrian time so long that the lavas were 
eroded into hills and later covered by sedimentary formations. They 
have now been exposed again by the removal of the drift and the sedi- 
mentary rocks in the valley. 

Sandstones, shales, and conglomerates, — sedimentary formations 
of Cambrian age, — are exposed in the valley sides lying against and 
above the Keweenawan lava formations, where they were deposited as 
seashore formations. Sea shells in them now lie along the river as fossils. 

Pot-holes worn into the hard igneous rocks by currents in the 
swiftly flowing glacial river occur at several points. 

A Section through Three Drift Sheets. At the picnic grounds near 
the station of the Northern Pacific Railway at Taylor's Falls a section 
shows the drift from the surface soil down to bed-rock. The top or 
first drift sheet is gray or bluish gray in color, and contains many lime- 
stone boulders and pebbles. This is the Young Gray drift. It is the 
fifth sheet from the bottom up. 

The next lowest deposit in turn is red in color, and contains no 
limestones but many hard granitic boulders. This second from the top 
is the fourth drift sheet from the bottom, and is that of the Patrician 
glacier, which came from north of Lake Superior. It is the Young 
Red drift. 

165 



166 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

The next drift is that of the Illinoisan, the Old Red drift. (See 
Chap. IV.) It contains few limestones, but many hard granitic boul- 
ders. The upper portion of this deposit in some exposures is discolored 
by weathering after it was deposited and before it was buried beneath 
the overlying Young Red drift. This upper portion, the "weathered 
zone" (see Chap. IV), shows that this was a soil surface for a long 
time before the later invasion of the Patrician glacier from the North 
covered it. 

The Old Gray drift and the Older Gray drift are not seen in the 
walls of the valley in The Dalles region for the evident reason that, 
those drift sheets, the second and first, were nearly all eroded away 
in this region before the later ones were deposited. 

Glacial River Terraces. One of the striking features of this re- 
markable valley is the terraces formed by the glacial river which cut 
the gorge. That was the river from glacial Lake Duluth. (See Chapters 
XVII and XX.) These represent bottoms of the river at different stages 
in the cutting down of the valley by it. 

The highest "bench" on the Taylor's Falls side of the valley, called 
the "picnic grounds," is a prominent broad level plain that is some- 
times mistaken for a terrace, but is not a river terrace, but the original 
drift surface level. Nearly as high, on the Wisconsin side of the valley, 
near the Soo Railway station, is a terrace or bed of the glacial river, 
which is more than 200 feet above the water of the present river. 

The second terrace marking a lower stage in the cutting down of 
the river is 90 feet below the highest terrace. This is best seen on the 
Wisconsin side of the valley. The principal business street of the city 
of St. Croix Falls is built on this terrace. 

Thirty feet below the level of the second terrace a third terrace 
occurs. It is best seen above St. Croix Falls on the Wisconsin side. 

The business portion of Taylor's Falls is built upon the next lower 
terrace, the fourth, which extends a mile up to the dam. This appears 
also on the east or Wisconsin side of the river, and is the flat plain on 
which the mill is located. This is a wide and conspicuous terrace, 50 
feet or more above the present river. 

A still lower terrace is about 25 feet above the river. It is less 
extensive than the others. It can be seen near the bridge crossing the 
river. This terrace belongs to the modern river. 

The valley and floor of the glacial river represented by the fourth 
terrace stage, as described above, is twice as wide as the present river's 
valley, 50 feet deeper and within it. The large glacial river suddenly 
ceased when Lake Duluth ceased to <iischarge through the Brule Pass 
to St. Croix Lake and River. Then the modern river took possession of 



THE DALLES OF THE ST- CROIX 



167 







Fig. 95. Wail of Lava Rock at The Dalles, Showing the "Old Man of The Dalles. 

Photograph by Brown. 



laS THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

the valley. The modern river has cut down 50 feet in its narrowed 
channel during the time since the glacial river ceased, or during what 
is called ''recent" time. 

Beds of Lava or Igneous Rock. A most interesting feature of The 
Dalles region is the igneous rocks which are here exposed. These have 
been deeply eroded by the glacial river which was forced to take its 
way across this hard barrier. The great quantities of sand and gravel 
that were carried by the swiftly flowing river made possible the great 
amount of cutting and wearing of the hard rocks by which the deep 
gorge has been formed. 

These lava rocks are of Keweenawan age, and as a formation are 
very old. The rocks are volcanic in origin and are therefore called 
igneous rocks (Ignis meaning fire). Centers of greatest volcanic activity 
from which these lavas were poured out from great fissures in the earth 
or from craters, were to the northeast in the Lake Superior Region. The 
Keweenawan formation has very extensive development both north and 
south of Lake Superior. The Keweenawan period was one of great 
volcanic activity. Lavas were poured out in immense sheets and spread 
over thousands of square miles, and accumulated to a depth of several 
thousand feet. The Dalles region is near the southwestern limit of 
this formation. 

The rocks were laid down in the form of great sheets of lava, which 
flowed over the land surface and cooled and became solid rock. Sev- 
eral sheets, one above another, occur at Taylor's Falls, each represent- 
ing a flow or outpouring of molten rock. One flow after another was 
poured out, some of them at least accompanied by such violent ex- 
plosive outbursts as to cover the entire surface with ashes and cinders 
to a considerable distance. Consolidated ash is found between lava 
flows. 

There are two types of igneous rocks or lava here shown. One is 
a compact hard, dark, crystalline rock, which is known as diabase. 
This rock makes up the greater part of the total thickness of each flow 
or sheet, which may be 50 feet or more in thickness. The second kind 
of igneous rock is a somewhat lighter colored, coarse-grained, ash-like 
compacted fragmental rock which occurs in thin layers or beds between 
the successive lava flows. These two kinds of rock are both of volcanic 
origin. The former was poured out from great flssures in the earth's 
crust, or from immense craters, in the form of molten lava. The latter 
was forced out from active volcanoes in violent explosions as fine ash 
and bombs. Associated with the second form of igneous rock referred 
to is the broken and shattered material usually found upon the surface 
of a stream or sheet of solidifying lava as it flows across the land. 



THE DALLE 8 OF THE ST- CROIX 169 

This second form of fragmental lava is spoken of as volcanic breccia. 
It is porous in structure and cavities are often filled with lighter col- 
ored green, pink, or white minerals. 

There are in all ten different lava flows or sheets shown in out- 
crops at The Dalles. Seven of these can be distinguished from their 
exposed and eroded edges where they form successive benches or steps 
on the west side of the river from the Elbow in The Dalles to the school 
building in Taylor's Falls and beyond. The several sheets or flows 
range in thickness from 30 to 50 feet. 

After the period of volcanic activity had ceased, a long time elapsed 
during which the bare rock surface was exposed to erosion. Ravines 
and gorges were cut into these solidified lavas, and hundreds of feet 
of thickness were worn away. Old ridges and valleys may still be 
seen in the vicinity of The Dalles showing a difference in elevation of 
more than 500 feet. The time required for such erosion is the measure 
of the interval of time between the close of the Keweenawan and the 
beginning of the deposition of the sedimentary rocks of the Cambrian. 

The Sedimentary Formations. During the time following the long 
period of erosion referred to, this part of the continent was gradually 
sinking beneath the sea. The higher ridges stood long as rocky islands 
and headlands in the ocean as it crept in upon the land. Conglomerates 
of Cambrian age were formed along the rock-bound and wave-battered 
shores, as may in places still be seen in the vicinity of The Dalles; for 
example, below the St. Croix Falls, and near the railroad crossing south 
of Taylor's Falls. Farther from the shore sands accumulated with mud 
and the shell remains of animals, which all together were formed into 
great beds of sandstone and shale. These may be seen in the river bluffs 
both above and below The Dalles. 

Thus the Cambrian sea sediments came to be deposited against and 
over the lava rocks. These sedimentary rocks are of great thickness. 
How thick these deposits were at The Dalles we do not know. Cer- 
tainly all the high ridges of igneous rocks which now crop out there 
were covered. 

A mile below Taylor's Falls, forming the bluffs along the Northern 
Pacific Railway, the so-called Franconia sandstone outcrops in fine ex- 
posures 100 feet in thickness. This is a white friable quartz sandstone. 
It contains few fossils, and because it is so soft and friable it is of little 
value for use as a building stone. The dark veins running through it 
are iron which soaked into crevices in the rock in solution as iron oxide. 

A shale formation known as the Dresbach, which occurs below the 
Franconia sandstone, is seen in a ravine under the first bridge of the 
Northern Pacific Railway, a mile south of Taylor's Falls. It occurs also 



170 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



at the base of the cliffs above The Dalles on either side of the river. 
These shales contain more lime and numbers of fossil remains of ani- 
mals occur. 

One of the most interesting .of the sedimentary formations is the 
conglomerates or shore beds of both the Franconia and the Dresbach 
formations. These consist of deposits of wave-AVorn fragments of 
igneous rock in the form of large and small boulders, pebbles, and sand 
worn from the adjacent cliffs, with the spaces between them filled 
with sand and other fine materials. The mass is cemented into solid 
rock by lime and iron which were dissolved in water. 

An extensive outcrop of conglomerate may be seen at the crossing 
of Mill street and the Northern Pacific Railway, where a rugged quarry 
face or bluff 20' feet in height is exposed. This is one block southwest 
from the public school building in Taylor's Falls. Another outcrop may 
be seen in the river gorge on the Wisconsin side, a short way above 
the old mill. Still another conglomerate bed occurs in the valley on 
the Minnesota side 2 miles south of Franconia. There a ridge of 
cemented boulders extends its end from under the bluff in vertical 
exposure 50 feet above the w^ater level. 

All the boulders in these conglomerates show much water wear such 
as is produced by heavy wave action along shore. They are really 
wave-worn sea pebbles of the ancient Cambrian ocean accumulated in 
great beds on the sea shore, and cemented later into hard rock. The 
boulders and pebbles are fragments of Keewanawan lavas (diabase) 
which formed the rocky shore, pieces of which have been built into 
the later Cambrian conglomerate formation. Sometimes a fragment of 
this Cambrian conglomerate is found far from its home on the drift 
covered prairies where it forms a part of the glacial deposit, a ''forma- 
tion" many, many millions of years younger. 




Fio. 96. A (Jriiidc 



from a Pol Hole, The Dalles of the St. Croix, Taylor's Falls. 
Photofjro/th by Brown. 



THE DALLES OF THE ST. C CROIX 



171 



Pot-Holes. At The Dalles, and also a mile above The Dalles, are 
a large number of deep holes worn into the hard igneoiis rocks. These 
are known as pot-holes. They are an accompaniment of the destruc- 
tion of the hard rock barrier — the igneous rock — which stood in the 
way of the river's progress. They are still forming in the present 
river bed, and they have been forming and being destroyed from the 
beginning of the river's attempt to saw its channel through the hard 
barrier. 

It seems clear from a study of the locality that all of these holes 
have been formed by whirling eddies under swiftly running water in 



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Fig. 97. A Pot Hole, The Dalles of the St. Croix, Taylor's Falls. Photograph hy Broivn. 



a river rapids across an uneven rock floor. The whirlpools and eddies 
carried sand and gravel round and round till great and small holes 
have been literally drilled into the hard crystalline rocks which formed 
the river's bed. Each hole was filled with a rotating column of water 
driven at the top by a whirlpool of the river that furnished power to 
keep it in rotation. At the bottom sand, pebbles, and boulders rolled 
round and round, boring the hole deeper and grinding the pebbles to 



172 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

powder, these to be replaced by new ones continually until the wall 
of one pot-hole broke into another so that the rock barrier gave way, 
or some other incident caused the whirlpool to quit working. Some 
pot-holes were left in the making when the glacial St. Croix gave way 
to the modern river. Others were worn out, and some under the river 
are still making. 

In many places it may be observed that the dividing walls between 
two or more pot-holes had been worn away forming large irregular cavi- 
ties. A narrow gorge near the steamboat landing at The Dalles was 
formed in that way by the destruction of the thin walls between rows of 
large pot-holes. The position of most of the pot-holes seen now in inter- 
state park is such as to have subjected them to great force from running 
water of the glacial river. 

Time is Long. It should be clearly understood that these great 
events in geologic history occurred, some of them, a very long time ago, 
long geologic ages before the glacial period. The earth was young, 
so to speak, when the great Keweenawan lava flows occurred. These 
lavas flowed out upon a land surface. During a later geologic period 
these lavas became covered by the waters of the sea, and the Cambrian 
sediments were deposited. It was again after the lapse of long seons 
that the glacial period ensued, and the waters from the melting of 
great glaciers caused great valleys to be formed in which are exposed 
now the rocks formed during the early stages of the geologic history 
of the earth. 

It may be interesting here to observe that, for purposes of com- 
parison, geologists have estimated the time from the beginning of 
Archaean time — the theoretical "beginning" of the formation of the 
continent — to the time of the final completion of the lava flows of 
Keweenawan time as 27,500i,000 years; from the end of Keweenawan 
to the end of Carboniferous time, the time when the great coal beds were 
formed, as 17,500,000 years; from the end of Carboniferous time to 
the closing stages of the glacial period when the great valley of The 
Dalles was formed, as more than 10,000,000 years. It is only about 
30,000 years since The Dalles were begun, as estimated, a geologic 
yesterday. These figures, it should be borne in mind, are at best only 
estimates, and are valuable chiefly as showing the great comparative 
lengths of periods of geologic time. 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY 

A "New" Landscape. When the ice of the latest glacial invasion, 
the Wisconsin, melted off from the landscape about St. Paul and Minne- 
apolis it uncovered a surface which had been much modified by the pas- 
sage of the ice over it and by the deposition of drift upon it, and a 
new set of streams began to flow, finding such courses as they could 
between the many knolls and ridges. At first some of the streams were 
swollen with water from the melting ice and flowed with swift and 
strong currents and were able to cut broad and deep valleys and to 
do much more work, both in erosion and transportation, than at present. 
They were laden with debris, partly outwash from the melting ice, 
partly drift from places where they were actively eroding. This debris 
Avas carried along or spread out for miles along their courses in what 
are now gravel floors and high terraces. A great many depressions were 
occupied by lakes and ponds. Many of these discharged over the lowest 
points of their rims to neighboring lower basins, and thus the courses 
of many new streams became fixed. In time many of the lakes became 
drained, and streams meandered across their former beds, and so by 
degrees the present system of drainage was developed. 

Beginning of the Falls. Before the Wisconsin ice had finally dis- 
appeared from this district, two principal streams had begun to be 
established, — the glacial Mississippi and the glacial Minnesota. Both 
were fed by waters from the melting ice to the north and west; both 
carried considerable debris, and were actively eroding their new chan- 
nels. These streams joined near what is now Fort Snelling, forming a 
stream that flowed northeastward in a new course to what is now St. 
Paul, where it found an old valley (the present course) leading south- 
southeast back into the old course of the river at Gray Cloud Island 
above Hastings. The stream was swift and vigorous, a mile wide, and 
in places 40' feet deep. It soon cut a gorge through a ridge of the 
Decorah shale (which is here the bed-rock underlying the drift) and 
into the Platteville limestone. Where the river flowed off the limestone 
into the old preglacial valley at St. Paul a fall was developed. The 
crest of this fall crossed the present valley of the Mississippi a little 
east of the line of Wabasha street, and remnants of the fallscarp are 
still preserved on both sides of the river. On the north side it extends 
from the present river bluff northward just east of the Court House 

173 



174 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



to Jackson street and East University avenue. The fall at that time 
was nearly II/2 miles wide and 40 feet high. 

It should be borne in mind that this fall was in the present valley 
of the Mississippi, which then was flooded by the two rivers combined, 
the glacial Mississippi and the glacial Minnesota. The Minnesota was 
at that time the more important or larger of the two. It has been 
stated that the present valley of the Mississippi below St. Paul had 
been an old (preglacial) valley, cut into the bed-rock. It was deep, 
but had been partially filled with drift. (The old part of the city of 
St. Paul, and McCarron Lake are in the partially filled preglacial valley.) 
The fall that developed where the glacial stream pitched off from the 
limestone shelf dug up the drift which lay in the old valley and ex- 




FiG. !)8. General View of St. Anthony Falls in 1857. 

Shows Spirit Island. Cataract Island, and Hennepin Island, from left to right, below the 

falls. The middle part of the falls has receded 700 to 800 feet since this painting 

was made. From painting by Fred. Richardt. U. 8. Geohxjical Survey. 

cavated a pool in the soft St. Peter sandstone which lies below the 
limestone. The limestone formation is only about 30 feet thick, and 
under it the sandstone was rapidly worn back by the surging water in 
the pool and by whirling stones and pebbles. The limestone thus under- 
mined broke off in jointed blocks 10 to 80 feet square, exposing the 
sandstone beneath to still further erosion. Thus, as the falling water 
continued to dig out the soft friable sandstone from below and the 
limestone continued to fall because undermined, the fall receded or 
"moved" upstream. 

Recession and Disappearance of the First Fall. The recession of the 



THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY 175 

fall appears to have been more rapid on the downstream or south side 
of the broad channel. As the fall worked upstream the new deep gorge 
which formed below it was only about half as wide as the channel 
above the falls. The river thus became concentrated in a narrower 
bed, and an abandoned part of the bed of the old channel above the 
falls remained and still remains as the limestone terrace along the north 
side of the river between Ft. Snelling and St. Paul. Blocks of limestone 
that fell at the side of the fall and were not removed by the current 
in the lower gorge still lie on the eroded surface of the St. Peter sand- 
stone on the north side of the river above High Bridge. (See Fig. 99.) 

In a former chapter (Chap. XVI), it was stated that the old course 
of the Mississippi River was from Lake Minnetonka in a southeasterly 
direction across the present course of the Minnesota 2 miles above 
Mendota, thence by Marcott Lakes to Hastings. When the new Missis- 
sippi-Minnesota gorge referred to had been cut back to the northeast 
wall of the buried preglacial valley (2 miles above Mendota), all the 
limestone in the river bed had then been removed and the fall ceased 
to exist. Afterward the river rapidly cut down into the drift of the old 
valley. The sandstone island in the swamp along Minnesota River about 
2 miles above Mendota marks the point where the falls ceased on the 
glacial Minnesota or River Warren. 

Beginning of the Falls of St. Anthony. When the head of the 
Mississippi-Minnesota gorge passed the point where the Mississippi en- 
tered, at Ft. Snelling, a fall was formed on that stream, and has cut 
its way back to its present position at St. Anthony Falls. 

From Nicollet Island, at Minneapolis, the glacial Mississippi at first 
flowed over a bottom of drift and Decorah shale, to the point where it 
joined River Warren, or the glacial Minnesota, which was then about 
a mile northeast of Ft. Snelling. Before the falls in the Mississippi- 
Minnesota glacial river had receded to that point, however, the Missis- 
sippi had cut its own channel down to the Platteville limestone, and had 
narrowed its course "because the Mississippi then ceased to be fed from 
the melting glacier. The modern Mississippi River first joined River 
Warren (glacial Minnesota) at Ft. Snelling. When the Minnesota glacial 
river had cut deep its gorge back to Mendota it encountered a buried 
preglacial side gulch or valley from the old Mississippi channel to the 
south of Mendota. This old gulch headed northwestward up the present 
course of the Mississippi about a mile, and ran southeastward past 
Mendota, by Augusta and Lemay Lakes, to the old course of the Missis- 
sippi. River Warren quickly cleared the drift from the part of that 
buried gulch or valley that lay under its course as the River Warren 
fall continued receding up its valley, as already described. The 



176 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Mississippi likewise rapidly cleared the drift from the old gulch or 
valley up to its head a mile above Ft. Snelling. There the waters of 
the Mississippi made a fall where it dropped off from the limestone 
ledge into the preglacial gulch at its north end. At that time was left 
on the east side, opposite Ft. Snelling, the abandoned channel north of 
the small drift hill (a former island in the river) on the north bank 





1 


1 




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Fig. 99. Blocks of Platteville l^imestone on Eroded Surface of St. Peter Sandstone Left 

in this I'osition at Foot of Receding Falls of River Warren. West of High Bridge, 

St. Paul. U. 8. Geological Surrey. 

high above the river. This drift hill is at the east end of the bridge at 
Ft. Snelling, and the old channel can be seen from Seventh Street 
running across to the River Boulevard. 

This was the beginning of the falls of the Mississippi, St. Anthony 
Falls, a mile above Ft. Snelling. They have since receded to their present 
position at Minneapolis. This part of Mississippi River was once called 
St. Anthony River by Father Hennepin, and the falls were named by 
him St. Anthony Falls. 

An Abandoned Fall Below Minnehaha Creek. St. Anthony Falls 
receded by the washing away of the soft sandstone by water plunging 
over the limestone ledge and through widening crevices of the limestone. 
Blocks of limestone from it are still seen at the Cold Springs, — where 
the falls began. Above that fall, the river divided around an island 
so that as the falls receded they too became divided. The larger chan- 



THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY 177 

nel was on the east of the island. Its falls receded faster and cut off 
the west channel above the island, leaving "Soldier Ravine," a gorge 
with an abandoned fallscarp at its head. This early remnant of St. 
Anthony Falls is now an historic record that shows how high the fall 
was at that stage, — about 40 feet. Besides Soldier Ravine on the west 
side there is a fallscarp remnant on the east side of that old island, 
hanging now high above the river, but telling the same story. 

A Second Abandoned Fall at Minnehaha. During the recession of St. 
Anthony Falls through the half mile above the mouth of Minnehaha 
Creek the river and the fall w^ere again divided by an island in the 
river which is now the point between the gorge of Minnehaha Creek and 
that of the present Mississippi River. The Soldiers' Home stands on 
this ancient island, the bridge crossing the old west channel. The chan- 
nel of the river west of the island (Deer Park Gorge) was the longer 
of the two and was finally cut off and abandoned as the east fall reached 
the head of the island first. The existence of the old west channel is 
shown by a shallow flat valley above the island that leads from the west 
bank of the river to the head of the gorge in Deer Park opposite Minne- 
haha Falls. The old fallscarp can still be seen there. Deer Park Ravine 
is the continuation, for a short distance, of the old west channel from 
the abandoned fall at its head down to the gorge of Minnehaha Creek. 
Minnehaha Creek enters this old west channel 600 feet east of Minnehaha 
Falls, and runs in it to the Mississippi. The bottom of the gorge has 
been eroded and deepened by the creek since the west falls ceased, but 
the block-covered terrace on the east side of the gorge shows the posi- 
tion of the former bottom of the Mississippi gorge. The height of the 
fall was 30 to 40 feet. 

Progress of the Falls Above Minnehaha. The main fall, which was 
on the east side of the island, opposite the Soldiers' Home, and where 
is now the deep gorge and the power dam, continued to recede, and 
the fall appears to have increased in height. A fragment of a fallscarp 
is preserved on the west side of the gorge just above Lake Street 
Bridge. When the Falls of St. Anthony were at this point the fall 
was the greatest in height at any time in the history of the gorge. The 
upper rapids had a descent of 15 feet in 300 feet to the crest of the 
falls. The fall was from the top of the lower half of the limestone, and 
was 20 feet in height. From the foot of the falls the lower rapid de- 
scended 40 feet in 300 feet. Thus there was a total fall of 75 feet. 
This fall marks the time of deepest cutting of the deep gorge, which 
was, of course, when River Warren was in its last days and its channel 
at Fort Snelling had its greatest depth. This gorge was later partly 
filled with rock waste. 



178 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




IG. lOOA, Dra icing hy F. W. Satdeson 



THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY 179 

During the time tiiat the falls have been receding through the last 
4 miles to their present location, the river, while excavating the gorge 
above, has at the same time been partially filling up the gorge below, 
from Lake Street Bridge to Ft. Snelling and thence on to St. Paul and 
beyond. When Father Hennepin first saw St. Anthony Falls, in 1680, 
they were a little above where the site of Tenth Avenue Bridge is now. 
A part of the fallscarp still remains, on the east side of the river. Since 
then the falls have entered the lower end of Nicollet Island rapids. 
The falls as sketched by Richardt in 1857 are shown in figure 98. 

Nicollet Island Rapids. The bed of Mississippi River above the 
upper end of Nicollet Island for many miles of its course is upon glacial 
drift. At Nicollet Island the stream begins to flow upon the Platteville 
limestone. The river cut down through the drift and uncovered the 
limestone while the stream was still being fed by waters from the 
melting ice. When, however, the glacier had disappeared from the upper 
drainage basin of the river and the river had subsided to about its 
present size the narrowed stream flowed over the outcropping edges of 
the Platteville limestone at the upper end of Nicollet Island. The 
modern stream developed a rapid at the upstream edge of the limestone. 
The limestone beds are not quite horizontal above the Tenth Avenue 
Bridge but dip toward the southeast or nearly in the direction of the 
river's course. Below that to Fort Snelling the beds are nearly level. 
The outcropping edges of the limestone offered first resistance to the 
stream in cutting down its channel, and thus a rapid was formed at 
Nicollet Island. The rapids are therefore older than the Falls of St. 
Anthony. 

When the river first began to uncover the limestone it was at a 
higher level than the present surface of the island as shown by terraces 
there. What is now the west end of the island and its highest part 
was at first a part of the rapids, but it soon became a rocky island in 
the stream with the cutting down of the bed of the river. Alluvial 
terraces on the island show that at this time the river still covered all 
the part of the island that lies below or east of the railroad. The rapids 
were then on either side of the smaller island which is now the high 
w^est end of Nicollet Island. As the channels were gradually deepened 
the rapids moved slowly downstream, because the limestone dips in that 
direction. Thus the rapids at Nicollet Island had been slowly- moving 
downstream by sawing deeper the beveled edges of the limestone layers 
since the limestone there was first uncovered by the river. The head of 
the rapids had moved down to the lower end of Nicollet Island, and 
the whole thickness of the Platteville limestone had been beveled by the 
river between the head of the rapids and the site of Tenth Avenue 



180 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Bridge when St. Anthony Falls arrived at that station in its recession 
up the stream. This has had an important effect upon the rate or 
recession of the falls during the last 250 years, due to the fact that 
the limestone had been beveled by the river, and a steadily decreasing 
thickness of the upper limestone had to be removed. 

Cause of Recession of the Falls. The recession of the falls has 
been due to the wearing away of the sandstone by the surging waters 
at the foot of the falls, and by the breaking down along the jointing in 
the two beds of limestone. This jointing does not, as a rule, coincide 
in the upper and lower beds of the limestone. As fast as erosion cut 
away the upper bed from the crest of the falls some water worked down 
through the joints in the exposed lower bed and by washing away the 
friable sandstone beneath, helped to undermine the limestone, which 
then fell in large blocks. 

Since 1871 the falls have been artificially protected by an apron 
and the recession has practically stopped. 

From 1680, when Father Hennepin saw the falls, to 1766, when they 
were visited by Jonathan Carver, they receded 412 feet, or 4.79 feet 
a year. From 1766 to 1856 they receded 606 feet, or 6.73 feet a year. 
When Father Hennepin saw the falls in 1680 they were at a point where, 
owing to the beveling referred to, only about half the upper limestone 
bed formed the crest of the falls, and by 1856 they had receded so far 
that none of that upper bed remained. 

It is apparent that there was a decided increase in the rate of 
recession of the falls after the Nicollet Island Rapids had been reached. 
This change in the rate of cutting back of the falls was due to the fact 
that the rapids above the falls had thinned off the limestone all the 
way from Nicollet Island to the falls. Since the limestone layers are 
practically horizontal below Tenth Avenue Bridge the rate of recession 
up to this point is thought to have been much slower. 

Rate of Recession. There is no exact method by which the length 
of time occupied in the cutting back of the falls can be determined, 
and a detailed discussion of the problem would be more tiresome than 
helpful. It may, therefore, be stated that after allowing for the increase 
in the rate of recession due to the Nicollet Island Rapids, it is estimated 
that the rate of recession of the falls before they entered the Nicollet 
Island Rapids was 2.44 feet a year, or a mile in 2,163 years. It is nearly 
4 miles from the point where the Falls of St. Anthony began above 
Ft. Snelling to Nicollet Island Rapids. On this basis of estimating, the 
time occupied in cutting the gorge would be about 15,000 years. On 
the same basis of estimating it is thought that it may have been 30,000 
years since the ice melted away from the present site of Ft. Snelling. 



THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY 181 

It is certain that, had not recession been artificially checked by an apron 
and retaining wall, the end of St. Anthony Falls would have been reached 
by this time. 

Minnehaha Falls. On another page it is stated that at one time 
there was an island in Mississippi River above where Minnehaha Creek 
now enters the river. When the falls in the channel on the side of 
this island, which is now the site of Deer Park at Minnehaha, receded 




Pig. 100. Minnehaha Falls. The Stream Falls 63 Feet over riatteville Limestone Capping 
St. Peter Sandstone. V. 8. Oeological Survey. 

past the point where Minnehaha Creek entered this west channel of 
the Mississippi, Minnehaha Falls began as a cascade about 40 feet high, 
over the edge of the new gorge. The cascade has cut its way back 600 
feet, in a gorge that is about 200 feet across at the top, and has increased- 
in height to 60 feet as the gorge below the falls has deepened. Minne- 



182 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

haha Creek carries but little sediment because its waters come from 
lakes (it is the outlet of Lake Minnetonka), and therefore does not 
wear aw^ay the limestone ledge over which it falls but slightly. The 
recession or cutting back of the falls is caused by the weathering and 
crumbling of the bed of shale which lies between the St. Peter sandstone 
below and the Platteville limestone above, about in the middle of the 
height of the falls. The limestone layers are thereby undermined and 
slowly break off below so that an overhanging shelf is formed around 
the head of the gorge. The stream then plunges from the top of the 
limestone and forms a cascade over a part of the shelf. The sandstone 
is worn away slowly below and a dry bench remains upon it on which 
a pony can be ridden across under the overhanging limestone and the 
falls. Viewed from this bench during the early part of the day a 
beautiful play of rainbow colors may be seen through the falls. 

A small stream enters the head of Deer Park gorge. This small 
stream follows the example of its larger neighbor, Minnehaha Creek, 
and forms a tiny fall as its waters tumble over the limestone shelf into 
the gorge. The story is told that the late Professor N. H. Winchell ac- 
companied a party of scientists to visit Minnehaha Falls and vicinity, 
and one of the party, observing the miniature falls produced by the 
little stream, jokingly asked its name. "Oh, that is Minnie Giggle" the 
Professor replied. And the tiny falls still carry this name ! 



CHAPTER XX 
LAKE DULUTH 

How the Lake Came to Be. During the Wisconsin stage of the ice 
invasion a glacier or lobe from the Labradorian ice sheet pushed into 
Minnesota by the way of the Lake Superior Basin. The ice entirely 
filled the basin in which Lake Superior now lies, so that the lake was 
pushed away as its basin became filled with ice. The front of the glacier 
was shoved forward over the rim of the Superior Basin on all sides, 
and the waters of the former lake were crowded out. Even after the 
glacier's front had begun to recede later by reason of the ice melting 
more rapidly than it advanced, the run-off from the melting ice went 
into the Snake and Kettle in Minnesota, and the St. Croix in Wisconsin, 
directly from the ice. When, however, the edge of the ice had melted 
back to within the rim of the lake basin a lake began to form again 
between the ice wall and the rock rim, steadily increasing in size as 
the ice melted back. 

The new lake began at Nemadji, many miles from the present 
shore of Lake Superior, and about 500 feet above the present lake level. 
This small high-level lake has been called Glacial Lake Nemadji by N. H. 
Winchell. The later and larger lake that lay between the rock rim of 
the Superior Basin and the ice wall is called Lake Duluth. The highest 
Lake Duluth shore-line was only a little lower around the rock rim 
than that of Lake Nemadji, the water being held up by the glacier 
which formed a dam across the basin from the north shore to Keweenaw 
Point, Wisconsin. After the glacier had melted from the east half of 
the basin the lake assumed more nearly its present size and level, and 
can be called Lake Superior. 

The outlet of Lake Nemadji was west through Moose Eiver to the 
Kettle. The outlet of Lake Duluth was south by the present site of 
St. Croix Lake in Wisconsin to the St. Croix River. At both the 
Nemadji and Duluth stages of the lake's history a large tributary glacial 
stream came down the St. Louis River valley. 

History of the Lake Shown in Land Forms. The record of the 
lake's history is found in the old lake beaches, terraces, and channels 
in and around Duluth. The highest set of shore-lines of Lake Duluth is 
known as Boulevard Beach, named from the Duluth boulevard or park- 
way drive, 450 to 500 feet above the level of the present lake, the 
boulevard being mainly upon the old lake shores. It is interesting to 
observe how clear these glacial historical records are, and also how 

183 



184 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



economically these geologic features have been taken advantage of in 
the construction of boulevards, railwavs, cemeteries, and even towns. 



3»r^ ^ *?ih. 















Fig 



101. Glacial Valley of St. Louis River at Jay Cook I'aik. Duhith. 
Photofjraph by Galldfjlicr. 



The Northern Pacific Railway runs from Moose Lake to Barnum, 
Mahtowa, Atkinson, Otter Creek, and Carlton along an old channel of 
St. Louis River, made at a time when that river emptied through the 
Kettle to the St. Croix. That was at a time when the glacier had 
melted back just to the rock rim of the Superior Basin. The glacier's 
edge faced the northwest at Carlton, and was about a mile outside 
(Avest of) the site of the town, where the gravel pit of the Great Northern 
Railway is now, south of Scanlon. A stream flowing away from the ice 
front had thrown out an apron or outwash plain of gravel at this point 
about three miles long by one-half to one mile in width, lying along 
the glacier's front, and the St. Louis glacial river, which came against 
the ice at Scanlon, was then turned out to the west of that fan of 
outwash. Its channel, seen at Scanlon j gives us the measure of the 
stream, one-half mile wide. It flowed southwest to Atkinson, Barnum, 
and Moose Lake in the valley now followed by Moose Horn River and 
the Northern Pacific Railway. At that time the ice wall or front of 



LAKE DULUTH 



185 



the Superior glacier was only 3 or 4 miles east of Moose Lake, and 
this was the western end or point of the glacier. 

The flood waters of the St. Louis River then came partly from the 
Cloquet River, which was still fed from the edge of the Superior glacier, 
but more flood came from Lake Upham, which was fed by the Keewatin 
glacier from the north. The glacial St. Louis River did not keep to 
its Scanlon channel at one end nor to the Moose Horn Valley at the 
other end very long. As soon as the ice wall had melted back at Carlton 
a mile or so the river followed the St. Louis Valley south to Carlton, 




Fig. 102. Glacial Lake Diiluth. Drawn hi/ F. W. Sardcson. 

from which point it turned against the ice wall and went southwest 
back into the former channel as far as Atkinson. From that point it 
turned south and discharged into Lake Nemadji at its north end. 

Lake Nemadji. Lake Nemadji at this time covered about 15 square 
miles. Its outlet was large, being about one-half mile wide. It occupied 
the valley or old river channel that is now followed by Portage Creek 
to Moose Head Lake at Moose Lake. The Soo Railway now runs along 



186 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

the north side of this old river channel and on the lake's bed, from 
Moose Lake to Nemadji. 

Lake Nemadji increased in size as the ice wall of the glacier melted 
away, while its outlet remained the same until the lake 's area was about 
50 square miles. The St. Louis glacial river then changed its route, 
however, again and came to the east of Carlton, and then southwest 
along the glacier's border. If, as has been proposed, a boat canal was 
to be built from Lake Superior to the Mississippi River the natural route 
would be up St. Louis River by locks from Fond du Lac near to 
Thompson — a rise from 602 feet to 1,060 feet above sea level. Then 
the canal would run level along the old glacial St. Louis River course 
past Nemadji and along Portage Creek to Kettle River. 

Changes of Lake Level and Criistal Uplift. The boulder strewn 
bottom and the shores of the Nemadji outlet remain in condition as 
if the stream had suddenly abandoned it at full size. And there is no 
doubt about what happened. A lower outlet drew down the level of 
the lake's surface to a point below this outlet. The explanation of 
the development of this new outlet is that the glacier had melted back 
from the rim of the lake's basin on the south so that the lake — now 
called Lake Duluth — had access to the Brule Pass to St. Croix Lake at 
the head of St. Croix River in Wisconsin. The Brule Pass is not neces- 
sarily lower than the pass at Nemadji now, but it was then. 

It is well known that change in elevation of the land surface has 
followed the unloading of the glaciers from the continent, and around 
Lake Superior the relative rise has been to the northeast. This would 
raise the Brule Pass as compared with the Portage Creek Pass. Near 
Nemadji the lake surface dropped about 25 feet from the Lake Nemadji 
level to the Lake Duluth level. There is no such difference between the 
two old outlets now, however. Lake Duluth fell again several times, 
as is shown by the occurrence of several beach lines instead of a single 
beach line. The several Boulevard Beaches at successive levels illustrate 
this. The falling of the lake surface was from cutting down of the 
Brule outlet. 

It is well known that the Boulevard Beaches and others of Lake 
Duluth are not horizontal but rise slowly when followed northward 
or eastward. Frank Leverett has determined that at the time of Lake 
Duluth the rock surface that is now north of the shore in Canada, and 
is 602 feet above sea level, was then depressed below sea level. The 
glacier vanished and the land rose. Whether or not it rose to just the 
same level as before the Wisconsin stage of glaciation we do not know. 
As the glacier retreated the Brule Pass was abandoned for lower out- 
lets across Michigan, and the lake fell. 



LAKE DULUTH 



187 



Lake Duluth Bottom. Nemadji River flows into Lake Superior 
across the former Lake Duluth bottom. All of the Nemadji River 
gorges are in glacial clay, with bed-rock in few places. The gorges are 
all "new" and sharp, or ditch-like. These valleys are newer, i. e., 
younger, than the clay beds of Lake Duluth. The St. Louis River gorge, 
mainly "new," is partly also an older valley, which was so deep that 
the deposits from the glacier and lake did not fill it. Duluth harbor, or 
"the Bay," is an old valley not yet filled, though it is being filled by river 
sediment and by shore wash. The deepest places are where scour keeps 
the mud out, i. e., in the straits. 




Fig. 103. Terraces Showing the Higher Levels of Lake Duluth at Lutzen, Cook County. 

The mouth of St. Louis River was first near Carlton, and moved 
down by stages as the lake's surface dropped to where it is now. At 
first the St. Louis River brought from the Ranges much sediment from 
the melting ice of the glaciers. This sediment, together with that from 
the melting front of the ice wall in the lake basin, was laid down in 
horizontal layers on the bottom. This is now the clay used for making 
brick at Wrenshall. East of Wrenshall there are places (best seen in 
railroad cuts) where the lake clay has been crumpled up by the pushing 
forward of the edge of the glacier during short periods of re-advance. 
Boulders also mark the position of water-laid moraines, which corre- 
spond to knolly terminal moraines that were dumped on the land north 
and south of Lake Duluth. But even with such water-laid moraines in 



188 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

it the old bottom of Lake Duluth was comparatively smooth. The view 
across the old lake bottom from the rim of the basin out toward Superior, 
Wisconsin, is a grand one. The ditch-like valley of Nemadji River and 
its branches do not break the continuity of the slope of the ancient lake 
basin when viewed broadly. 

Superior and West Duluth are built on what was once the bottom 
of glacial Lake Duluth. The mud came from shore wash and from flood 
waters of Nemadji and St. Louis Rivers rather than from the glacier, 
which by this time had receded by melting far from the shore. The 
old valley of St. Louis River, which was deeper and hence not filled up, 
was not smoothed over by shore wash, but remained as a part of the 
lake, extending as a bay to where Fond du Lac now is. The mouth of 
the river was then near Fond du Lac. It is now at Big Island. 

The Struggle Between River and Lake. When storms from the 
east sweep the lake the water rises in the Bay, as the water west of 
Minnesota Point is called, and backs up the river at times as far as 
Fond du Lac. When St. Louis River rages at flood it fills the Bay with 
muddy water, and a long yellow streak may be seen running out into 
the lake beyond the Bay. The balance of control between the lake and 
the river is at Big Island. From Fond du Lac to Big Island the river 
at all times has a sloping surface. But from Big Island out through 
the Bay there is room for convection or circular currents to turn, and 
whether the flow of water is going out from the Bay to the lake or into 
the Bay from the lake the level of the water of the Bay is always the 
same as that of the lake. A notable difference between the Bay and the 
river is that there are levees along the St. Louis down to Big Island, 
with some lakes or ponds behind the levees, but in the Bay, however, 
there are only scour channels, where currents in the narrows keep the 
mud from accumulating and filling up, and outside the scour channels 
there is naturally a flat, Avide, muddy bottom. 

Minnesota Point. The Bay was connected naturally only by a scour 
channel with the outer lake. (The channel at Aerial Bridge was cut 
artificially.) Tliat scour channel cuts across the most remarkable of 
all features seen at Duluth, — the Minnesota Point. A view from the 
rocky hills 500 feet above Duluth shows an arm 7 miles long extending 
out at nearly right angles to the shore of the lake and Bay. Opposite 
to it is a shorter but otherwise similar arm extending out from the 
Wisconsin shore. The scour channel, already referred to, lies between 
the ends or points of the two arms or spits. 

The appearance of tlie long, low, slender strip of land running 
boldly out from a rocky shore suggests at once that it (the Minnesota 
i'oint) is a rock reef, — but it is not. To a person who knows the glacial 



LAKE DULUTH 189 

history of the lake it looks like a glacial moraine, — though it is not. 
It is all sand and gravel. It is neither bed-rock reef nor crumpled up 
boulder-clay moraine. It is just a lake shore. Its position might sug- 
gest that it is where a shore was built when the lake's surface was 
a hundred feet or more lower than it is now, and that the shore built up 
as the surface of the lake rose. But the lake never was more than a few 
feet lower than it is now. The truth appears to be that it is an off-shore 
bar or spit built out into the lake by what is called the 'long shore carry- 
ing or transport of sand and gravel by waves. The northeast wind and 
waves tearing along the lake's shores move sand and gravel — not onto 
the shore nor into the lake — but along shore, and of course toward the 
Bay. When shallow water near shore is reached the force of the waves 
is spread, and whatever load is being moved is also spread. Thus a 
spit was begun projecting out into the lake, and when once begun it 
steadily grew at the end. That happened on both sides of the Bay. 
How Minnesota Point and Wisconsin Point happened to so nearly 
meet is because of the storm currents of the lake and bay. The spits 
are built along where the currents of the deeper waters of the lake meet 
the shallower waters of the Bay. There would have been a continuous 
shore long ago but that the spits are kept apart by the scour of water 
rushing at times of storms into the Bay and later out again. Now that 
the "points" cannot grow longer they are growing stronger by increas- 
ing in width. Thus a natural harbor was built with complete natural 
protection from storms out of an old submerged remnant of a river 
valley by the work of the storms themselves. 



CHAPTER XXI 

GLACIAL LAKES AITKIN AND UPHAM 

Ancient Lake Bottom in Aitkin County. In northeast central Minne- 
sota, on the upper Mississippi, occur the remains of a lake 50 miles in 
length from north to south, and varying from 10 to 25 miles in width. 
Its old shores, with a raised, gravelly beach, by affording suitable well- 
drained locations, determined the sites of several railway stations and 
towns, — Aitkin, Kimberly, and Grayling, on the Northern Pacific Rail- 
way, and Axtel and Palisade on the Soo. The old mud bottom of the lake 
is a good "Red River Valley" type of soil where not too swampy for 
cultivation. Large areas are covered by thick peat-bogs, enough to 
supply fuel to the state of Minnesota for an indefinite time if coal sup- 
plies from elsewhere were exhausted. On the old lake bottom there are 
a few remaining small lakes, and there would be more of these if the 
Mississippi River had not deposited so much mud along its course 
across it. 




Fig. 104. Map of Glacial Lakes Aitkin and Upham. 
190 



GLACIAL LAKES AITKIN AND VPHAM 191 

Lake Aitkin was a shallow lake with several islands. Its old shore 
is now about 25 feet higher than the Mississippi River at Aitkin. The 
lake may have been 50 feet deep in places before the filling of mud by 
the Mississippi took place. The north side of Lake Aitkin is merged 
into a great swamp and bog which conceals some of the shore line. 
The southeast part near McGregor was a shallow bay having a sandy 
bottom, but is largely overgrown with peat now. 

As the Mississippi River, which runs through the basin of the old 
lake, cleared out its channel and cut down its bed north of Rabbitt 
Lake down past Brainerd to Little Falls, the lake was drained by the 
opening of its outlet but filling of the lake basin with mud, and the 
accumulation of bogs by the growth of vegetation, also tended to destroy 
the lake. Also the tilting of the land surface by a balancing movement 
of the crust of the earth aided in causing the disappearance of the lake. 
The last-named cause probably explains why the lake disappeared or 
shrunk away so soon after the melting away of the glacier. It built only 
one set of beaches, showing that it existed for a short time, and then 
rapidly shrunk away. The shore at Aitkin is about 1,225 feet above 
sea level now, while at Grayling it is about 1,235 feet, and at Jacobson 
still higher. Since the shore line at the time of formation of the beach 
was, of course, level, the present differences in altitude of points on 
the shore line show that there has been a change in the "level" of the 
earth's surface here after the weight of the great continental glacier 
was removed. 

Lake Aitkin Named. Lake Aitkin was so named by Warren Upham 
at the time when he discovered the old lake shore at Aitkin. He called 
it '^ Glacial Lake Aitkin." It was not, however, a glacial lake in the 
sense in which Lake Agassiz and Lake Duluth were glacial lakes. 
These lakes were held up by ice of glaciers acting as a dam at one 
end while compelling the water to overflow across land barriers at 
the other end. Lake Aitkin was a glacial lake in the sense that it 
was brought into existence by obstructions which the glaciers made, 
but it differed from those named in that it remained after the glacier 
had melted and disappeared from the country. Most of the 10,000 
lakes for which the State of Minnesota is famed are ''glacial" lakes 
in that they owe their existence directly or indirectly to the action 
of glacier ice. Lake Agassiz, Lake Duluth, and Lake Aitkin, however, 
are called ''glacial" lakes because they not only owed their existence 
to the glaciers, but they disappeared with or soon after the melting 
of the glaciers. 

The bed of Lake Aitkin is now only partially occupied by farms. 
At the time when Upham described and named it, in 1899, the lake's 



192 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



basin was nearly all grown over with timber and hog. He did not then 
follow out the shores of the lake completely. That work was done 
later by Leverett and Sardeson while making a soil survey of the 
State, there being more railways, wagon roads, drainage ditch embank- 









^ f iiiiltlfiil 




Mtmmm 


l^l^^^J 


Wm^.Mi^^mUm 


1^4. 







Pig. 105. Dairy Farm on Clayey Bottom of Lake Upham, Meadowlands. 

ments, and other paths which make the task more easy than when 
Upham 's geological reconnaisance of Aitkin County was made. 

Islands and Beaches. There were two large islands with small 
lakes on them, and several small islands, in Lake Aitkin. Palisade is 
on one of the smallest islands, located near the Mississippi River, — a 
beautiful gravelly spot in the midst of mud banks and wide bogs. East 
of Palisade, across the Mississippi River, is a large island which is 
marked all around by a well-defined beach. Kimberly, on the Northern 
Pacific, is located at the extreme south end of another large island, 
and, at the northeast part, Axtel, on the Soo, is built on the same beach 
which runs in a very winding course around the irregular shaped island. 

The shores of the old lake are fine gravelly beaches where the lake 
was swept by the northwest winds. At Aitkin the shore is a few 
feet high, and the beach-ridge is as wide as a roadway from the city 
west to the cemetery. At Grayling the beach is higher and broader, 
and a street has been constructed upon it with houses on both sides 
of it standing high and dry above the lower lake bottom. The beach 
there is very steep and is a conspicuous landscape feature. It runs 



GLACIAL LAKES AITKIN AND UPHAM 193 

several miles north and south and is occupied by a country road. At 
Kimberly the shore is a sidehill terrace, best seen near the Northern 
Pacific trestle on the south side of the valley opposite Kimberly. This 
valley was then a strait between the island on which Kimberly is 
located and the mainland. Around McGregor a glacial outwash plain 
was submerged and worked over by the waves of a shallow bay, form- 
ing sand-bars. These bars remained as sandy islands in the peat-bog 
which succeeded the lake there. The town of McGregor is located on 
a gravelly bar, and the Northern Pacific Railway runs from island to 
island across from McGregor to Ude, which latter is on an island's 
beach. 

The outlet of the old lake lies directly across the moraine which 
extends from Deerwood north past Cayuna and west of Rabbitt Lake 
to Emily. Back from the old outlet the river has eroded into the old lake 
bed, a deep, nearly straight channel with high banks and high, dry land 
on either side. This eroded channel extends from north of Rabbitt 
Lake near Cayuna for several miles nearly to the mouth of Little 
Willow River. Above this deep, nearly straight channel the river is 
very crooked and the channel is bordered by banks that are generally 
higher than the land that lies back of them. The Mississippi River 
has here the appearance of a stream that flows through a filled basin or 
valley, — a sluggish, meandering stream with levees, bayous, and bor- 
dering swamps, a rich land for the drainage engineer and the farmer, 
up to the head of Lake Aitkin. 

Lake Upham, Named for Noted Geologist. A lake similar to Lake 
Aitkin occupied the St. Louis River Valley at Floodwood and northward 
at the same time that Lake Aitkin occupied the position just described 
on the Mississippi. As Lake Agassiz was named in honor of a noted 
student of glacial geology, Louis Alexander Agassiz, so Lake Upham was 
named by N. H. Winchell in honor of Dr. Warren Upham, who has 
contributed so largely to the literature of glacial geology in Minnesota 
and the Northwest. 

The silty deposits that are characteristic of lake bottoms are well 
seen at Floodwood in the cultivated fields, but most of the old lake's 
area is overgrown with peat, being largely peat-bog and swamp. The 
lake's beaches were not discovered and traced till long after this ex- 
tinct, lake was named. On the road from Floodwood south to Prairie 
Lake there is a distinct gravelly beach which can be followed for 



194 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

miles east and west along what was the south shore of Lake Upham. 
Gravel for road construction is now being taken from this beach. Island 
Farm at Island appears to be on the north shore of the ancient lake, 
but there may be no raised beach around the north side of the lake, 
or if any, it is probably covered with peat deposit. 

Lake Upham did not remain long. It was a shallow lake having a 
flat bottom, and its outlet was near the deepest part. St, Louis River 
soon cut down its channel and allowed the waters to escape. This may 
all have happened before Lake Agassiz and Lake Duluth shrank away. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE LAKES AND RIVERS OF FREEBORN COUNTY 

A Detail of Glacial History 

A study of the glacial features of Freeborn County is instructive 
as illustrating the processes by which the present landscape features of 
a large part of the State have been formed. The geological factors that 
have been active in Freeborn County are those that have shaped the 
character of the landscape over a large part of the State as a whole. 
No two counties or districts are exactly alike, of course. The map of 
no county is a precise type of the whole State, but the geological history 
of Freeborn County is suggestive of what has occurred over the greater 
part of the State in that it has all the common glacial features, — mo- 
raines, till-plains, outwash gravel plains, lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes, 
bogs, rivers, and creeks, — that, as a scientist would say, are consequent 
to, or in other words that result from, the invasion of a region by a 
glacier. 

If one were to travel from the southeast corner of the State west- 
ward across Houston, Fillmore, and Mower Counties, no lakes would 
be found there because a land surface is being crossed that has been 
eroded into valleys that drain that surface. Upon reaching Freeborn 
County, however, many lakes are found, and the surface is covered 
with a glacial drift deposit so new that valleys are blocked up and well 
defined lines of drainage have not been established. In other words, 
the land is not drained. Freeborn County was like Mower and Fill- 
more Counties now are before the last glacier invaded it and left the 
surface covered with drift. It is easily seen that new glacial drift 
and lakes go together. For example. Little Elk Lake lies exactly at 
the border of the drift of the youngest or Wisconsin glacier, at the 
outmost limit of its invasion. The southeast corner of the county was 
not covered by the glacier that made the lakes, and that corner can be 
taken as representative of the small part of the State that does not 
have lakes of the glacier's making. 

The glacier did not simply move out over the country and then 
melt away, but the ice advanced slowly while at the same time it wa§ 
melting. The balance between the pushing forward of the glacier and 
the wasting of the border by melting fluctuated so that the border 
advanced, and, as we say, ''retreated"; re-advanced and retreated 
again. The margin of the glacier stood at times stationary, just on the 

195 



IDG 



THE IS TORY OF THE NORTH t^TAR STATE 



12; 
o 

w 



m 









— ^- ' — o; 




THE LAKEH AND RIVERS 197 

tremble as it were between advance and retreat. At such times the 
hilly moraines were formed. A re-advance over a moraine, of course, 
wiped it out, so that only the moraines that were not over-ridden remain 
as moraines. Ground moraine, called also till-plain, is practically all 
over-ridden moraine. During retreats and advances the shape of the 
glacier's edge changed a little so that it might over-ride and wipe out 
one part of a moraine and not another part. Many such examples occur 
in Freeborn County. 

Lakes are a very marked characteristic of a landscape that has 
been recently glaciated. The lakes of Freeborn County offer an inter- 
esting study in the manner of formation of lakes and the processes of 
glaciation. 

Among the most interesting lakes in Freeborn County are the Albert 
Lea Lakes, at Albert Lea. The easiest way, perhaps, to describe these 
lakes is to explain how they came to be. To do that it is necessary to 
trace the succession of events in the history of the glacier, as shown 
by the drift hills or moraines, the till-plains, and the outwash plains. 
On the accompanying map (figure 106) the lakes and streams and the 
glacial deposits to which they are related are shown. 

First Event: Advance of the Ice. The first activity of the glacier 
recorded in the county was the spread or advance of the ice border 
across the county from west to east until all was covered except a very 
small area in the northeast corner of the county and a slightly larger 
area in the southeast corner. This position farthest out is marked by 
a deposit a few feet in thickness of glacial till or clay, with pebbles 
and boulders, and a belt of knolls and small hills of the same character 
of material along the margin. From a mile north of Elk Lake that 
belt runs northeast into Mower County near to the town of Austin, and 
then turns back again into Freeborn County. All of the land along the 
border slopes eastward or away from the border belt of knolls, so that 
the filling of shallow valleys did not make any lakes. Only inside, or 
west, of the border are there ponds or sloughs, and none of them large 
enough to be placed upon the map. 

Second Event: Retreat and Re-advance of the Ice. The second 
event in the record of the glacier was that the front of the ice melted 
back some miles, we do not know just how far, and then advanced again 
up to a line a mile east of Oakland and east of Moscow. A weak moraine, 
that is, not very rugged in character, or chain of knolls, marks the 
position of the ice border. No lakes but only small "kettles" were 
formed at that time. 

Third Event: Formation of Moraine and Lakes. The third event, 
after the melting back or retreat of the front of the glacier from its 



198 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

second position, was a re-advance of the ice to a third position, which 
is marked by a moraine about a half mile wide. This moraine is 
stronger, or more pronounced in character, than the other two. The 
knolls and hills are higher because by this time the deposit of drift 
was becoming heavier, and the thrusting of the edge of the ice, a huge 
ice-plow, tending to build up larger mounds. The width of the moraine 
also shows that the ice front stood for a longer time at the third position 
than at the second. This third position is west or back of the second 
position near Oakland and Moscow, but south and north of these new 
bulges in the front of the glacier carried this moraine beyond the second, 
and up to the first position, as may be seen on the map. 

Two lakes were developed in the building of the third moraine. 
Elk Lake near London is just on the border of the new drift, in this 
moraine, and it occupies a depression which was a small valley no 
doubt, that drained westward into the head of the creek which still 
runs southward at the State line. The basin of Elk Lake in short is 
the result of blocking up by new drift across a shallow valley. Another 
lake that was brought into existence at this time is represented by 
the swamp and small lake 5 miles northward of Moscow. (See map.) 
That basin lies between the second and third moraines, and it still 
drains westward along the valley the drifting up of which caused the 
lake to be formed. 

From this third position an outwash of gravel and sand was formed 
at the north boundary of the county. A stream flowing away from the 
front of the ice and bringing out gravel and sand from the melting 
ice accounts for such an outwash plain. Except for the filling of out- 
wash gravel there would very likely have been a lake formed there also. 

Fourth Event: Re-advance of Ice Front. The fourth position of 
the ice front was determined by a re-advance of the glacier. At the 
north boundary of Freeborn County this fourth position of the front 
of the glacier was close upon the third position, so that the two moraines 
are closely parallel and in part merged together. The two moraines 
run in that close relation for a distance of 15 miles southward, to 5 
miles north of Myrtle where they divide. The fourth moraine then 
runs southwest to Gordonsville and the Iowa boundary, where it turns 
west. Across Shell Rock River it turns north into Minnesota again, and 
finally into Iowa again. It appears as hills and knolls in and around 
the swamp which lies from 1 to 5 miles west of Gordonsville. This 
turning of the moraine shows how the Shell Rock Valley depression 
influenced the movement of the ice of the glacier. A tongue-like lobe 
of the glacier about 3 miles in width and 4 miles long pushed down 
the river's valley. 



THE LAKES AND RIVERS 199 

A lake was formed at that time inside the moraine, and it is still 
represented by the swamp and Goose Lake, on Goose Creek west of 
Gordonsville. 

This lake, no doubt, occupied the valley as soon as the ice border 
retreated. The lake would, of course, have extended to and above 
Albert Lea if the glacier had retired that far before the next re-advance. 

Fifth Event: Formation of Moraine and Ponding^ of Waters. The 
fifth event is recorded by the moraine at Hayward. From the north 
line of Freeborn County this moraine, which represents the fifth position 
of the glacier, is merged with those of the fourth and third positions 
as far south as the east side of Rice Lake. From the south side of 
Rice Lake the moraine runs by Hayward and Glenville and then south- 
west where it again merges with the moraine of the fourth position. 
While the front of the glacier occupied this fifth position there was a 
lake where the swamp now is east of the present Rice Lake. It was 
held in by the ice on the west and the higher land south and east. The 
valley of Turtle Creek, which runs by Moscow to Cedar River, was 
the outlet. That lake had the effect of spreading out whatever drift 
was thrust or dumped into it, and that is the reason why a flat swamp 
Dccurs instead of a regular moraine east of Rice Lake. 

Another lake nearly 10 square miles in area was held between the 
moraines east of Hayward where the Rice swamp lies. An outlet of 
this lake was formed by the water being forced to overflow across the 
moraines north of Myrtle, southeastward down the little valley now 
occupied by Woodbury Creek. After the glacier had withdraw^n once 
more this lake appears to have developed another outlet to the west, 
which was more nearly the original direction of drainage for that basin. 
The Rice swamp area probably drained westward near to where Hay- 
ward now is before the moraine was deposited there by the glacier. 

Goose Lake, west of Gordonsville, was greatly changed at this time 
by outwash sand and gravel carried into it from the melting ice. While 
the moraine was being made along the ice front from Hayward to 
Glenville the ice covered the site of Albert Lea Lakes and of Shell 
Rock River to Glenville. Streams flowing away from the glacier at 
Glenville filled the valley with their loads of sand and gravel to Gordons- 
ville and below, and west where the swamp is now, where had previously 
been the larger Goose Lake. 

Sixth Event : Moraine Blocks Drainage. The sixth event in the 
glacier's history, as recorded in moraine building, accounts for the 
moraine at the south end of Geneva Lake and extending to Rice Lake, 
and southwest. This sixth moraine blocks the drainage of the Rice Lake 
Basin, which was originally toward the west. All the rest of this moraine 



200 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

in Freeborn County except this small lobe, or tongue, which reaches 
out to the west end of Rice Lake, was over-ridden by the glacier when 
it made the great seventh moraine. 

The position of this sixth moraine where it crossed the Shell Rock 
Valley is somewhat uncertain, but it was probably at the narrows be- 
tween the upper and the lower lakes at Albert Lea. Being over-ridden 
by the glacier and smoothed and toned, down it is probably represented 
by the higher land on which the city of Albert Lea is built. 

Seventh Event: Old Valley Filled by Outwash. The seventh event 
accounts for the position of the great moraine which hems in Geneva 
Lake on the west. The w^aters from the melting glacier formed a great 
shallow lake which is now the swamp that extends eastward past Rice 
Lake, and drains down the Turtle Creek Valley. The border of the 
glacier at this seventh position also bulged down the Shell Rock Valley 
to what is now the lower end of the Albert Lea Lakes, and while the 
glacier stood at this stage the waters from its melting made a 
high outwash plain down the valley over the fifth moraine. It is this 
outwash which fills the valley to Glenville. Lake Albert was thus still 
further separated from the Goose Lake basin, west of Gordonsville. 

The Albert Lea Lakes lie in what remains of an older Shell Rock 
River valley. The valley has been filled with till and outwash from 
a point below the Iowa boundary up to where the lakes begin. The 
valley and its branches are also filled above the lakes (north and west). 
Even where the lakes now are the old valley is partly filled with drift. 
Between Geneva Lake and the east arm of Lake Albert (nearest Hay- 
ward) an old valley is blocked by the moraine. Two other valleys are 
filled above Albert Lea. In fact, even the basin of the Albert Lea Lakes 
escaped filling w-ith outwash only because of the high level of glacial 
Lake Albert Lea. 

The shores of what it is convenient to call Lake Albert Lea, to dis- 
tinguish the high first stage of lake level from the present Albert Lea 
Lakes, can still be traced, as shown on the map (figure 106), across the 
present site of the city of Albert Lea. The high level of those shores 
corresponds to an outlet of Lake Albert Lea which was then over the 
top of the outwash plain to Glenville, instead of as now, in a deep 
channel through that plain. This high level marks where the water stood 
while the glacier was making the large outwash plain above the lakes. 
If now it is recalled that when streams carry gravel and sand into a 
lake they build flat deltas whose surfaces are at or above the level of 
the lake, then it is clear that the high level of Lake Albert Lea caused 



THE LAKES AND RIVERS 201 

the outwash gravel and sand which were coming from streams swollen 
by melting ice to be filled up to a great depth, thus building a high 
plain instead of spreading down the valley past Albert Lea, as it would 
have done if the lake level had been as low then as it is now. It thus 
appears that the filling of gravel in the outwash plain below the lakes 
both made the lakes in the first place and then by its ponding the 
valley full of water saved the valley and the lakes from filling up en- 
tirely with outwash. 

Eighth Event: High Outwash Plain Formed. The eighth event in 
the history of the glacier, as recorded by its deposits, accounts for the 
great moraine which lies west of Albert Lea (see map, figure 106). The 
front of the glacier while in this position bulged forward down the 
valley and reached what is now the northwestern part of Albert Lea 
city. The front of the ice stood across the lake there (Lake Albert Lea). 
A part of the moraine became an island in Lake Albert Lea, and this 
island is now the hill in the northwest part of the city. Other parts 
of the moraine near this hill are buried under the high outwash plain. 
As already explained, the high surface level of Lake Albert Lea caused 
the streams which brought gravel and sand from within the glacier 
to build up a high outwash plain close to the front of the ice instead 
of spreading it out farther down the basin. Consequently part of the 
moraine is covered under outwash. The shore of the old lake next to 
the outwash plain is remarkably high, for the reason that the plain 
was built up above the high level of Lake Albert Lea. Since that time 
the lake level has been lowered by its outlet. Shell Rock River, which 
has eroded a channel into the plain below the lakes. Pickerel Lake 
likewise has* high banks of outwash on one side, and it was probably 
a part of Lake Albert Lea before it was cut off by the deposit of out- 
wash. The outlet of Pickerel Lake is through and under the gravel 
outwash. 

Lakes in Partially Filled Valleys. The lakes of w^estern Freeborn 
County are more simply explained than those of the eastern part. They 
occupy generally what was some kind of valley before the glacier ad- 
vanced over the surface, but they owe their existence, in many cases, 
to unequal thickness of the glacial drift itself. The deposits made by 
the glacier in its first position, or near the margin, as has been stated, 
were only a few feet in thickness. Farther back, however, or behind 
its seventh and eighth positions, the deposits of drift accumulated to a 



202 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

thickness of 25 to 50 feet. Ten feet less in thickness of drift deposited 
in one place than was laid down around that place could in itself make 
a lake basin on what was before only a level prairie. The lake near 
Emmons, called State Line Lake, is a basin between thicker deposits 
or ridges of the moraine. Upper Twin Lake is a depression in the till- 
plain. Freeborn Lake, Mule Lake, and several smaller ones are basin- 
like depressions in the till-plain. Freeborn Lake and the three smaller 
lakes north of it express by their succession in a line, and by the 
elongation of each one in the direction of that line, that they are the 
faint remnants of a valley. In fact, these four lakes and the two near 
the railway between Freeborn and Albert Lea are probably surface 
remnants of what was once the Shell Rock River Valley, now nearly 
effaced by deep filling of glacial drift. 



CHAPTER XXIII 



THE LAKES OF MARTIN COUNTY 



Three Remarkable Groups of Lakes. A glance at a map of Martin 
County shows three striking groups of lakes. These are known as the 
central, east, and west chains of lakes. A row of lakes extending along 
a definite line for many miles, but not connected, and related to no 
definite drainage system, at once challenges attention. It is something 




Fig. 107. Map Showing the Chains of Lakes in Martin County. Drawn ly F. W. Sardeson. 

more than accident that a great number of lakes should be thus set in 
rows upon the landscape. In the central chain there are 18 lakes 
within Martin County, varying in width from a quarter mile to a half 
mile or more, and in length from a half mile to a mile or more. The 
chain extends across the county, in a north-south direction. As may 
be seen from the map, these lakes are not definitely connected in a series 
by a stream. The east and west chains are not as definitely arranged 

203 



204 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

in series as the central, but they are, nevertheless, fittingly called chains 
of lakes. 

Chains of Lakes in Old River Valleys. The accompanying map, 
(figure 107) shows the lakes of Martin County as they were seen by 
Warren Upham and described by him in 1884.* Upham regarded these 
chains of lakes as notable features, which indeed they are. His idea 
was that the lakes lie in chains along river valleys that were formed 
before the last glacier crossed the country, and that the glacier partially 
filled the valleys forming chains of basins in the valleys. 

The central chain of lakes lies along a valley-like depression part 
of which is not now a stream valley. All of it could have been a stream 
valley before the last glacier filled it. Clearly it was. In the east 
chain the lakes are not so definitely arranged in a series, yet clearly 
enough, this is another old valley site. The west chain is made up of 
several parallel short chains arranged crosswise as though in old valleys 
that were tributary to the old valley in which the central chain is 
located. The map shows the terminal moraines (dotted area) and the 
till-plain or ground moraine (plain area) as traced later by Leverett 
and Sardeson. 

It- is clear that there were three interglacial valleys. The streams 
that occupied these valleys probably flowed north to the Minnesota 
River or to its interglacial predecessor. The last glacier came up the 
Red River Valley and down the valley of the Mirmesota and south as 
far as Des Moines. As this glacier melted back the ice still moved south 
although its front retreated north. The three moraines shown on the 
map (dotted areas) indicate three re-advances of the glacier's front 
while it was receding across Martin Count}^ The center of the glacier's 
movement was over Blue Earth River, in Faribault County, to the east. 
Under these conditions the glacier would naturally force the new 
drainage in Martin County to the south. The small stream in the south- 
west corner of the county, near Bunnell, is the East Des Moines, and 
flows south. If there had been any glacial stream coming from the 
glacier's front here it would have gone necessarily south to the Des 
Moines from any part of Martin County. Such a stream would have 
filled its valley with sand and gravel, and would have established a 
permanent stream southward. But that did not happen. 

Because there were no glacial rivers these chains of lakes remain 
in the partially filled old valleys. The streams, except the one in the 
southwest corner of the county, flow to the Blue Earth and the Minne- 
sota, the natural slope of the county being from southwest to northeast. 

♦Geological Survey of Minnesota, Vol. T., p. 472. 



THE LAKES MARTIN COUNTY 205 

New Drainage System Established. With a glacier moving- from 
north to south a north-south valley would escape filling, while east-west 
valleys would fill up most with ground moraine. The surface over 
which the last glacier moved here was, no doubt, a prairie of gentle 
slope, with valleys as much as 100 feet deep eroded into its surface. 
The old landscape was the till of an older glacial deposit, the Kansan. 
This Old Gray drift, with the soil that mantled it, is seen in the cut 
banks of some of the lakes there now. The last glacier moved from 
north to south in the direction of the valley of the central chain of 
lakes. A ground moraine of boulder clay 30 to 40 feet thick accumu- 
lated over the surface, filling the cross-valleys but only half filling the 
north-south valleys. There was no outwash from glacial rivers to fill 
the basins, no streams to cut great channels southward. Hence when 
the glacier was gone the drainage turned toward the easiest course, 
which was northeastward toward the Minnesota. 

The central chain overflows by four separate streams to the north 
and east, following the natural slope. If these streams had all concen- 
trated into one from the head, or south, to the foot, or north end, there 
would probably have been stream enough to cut down the outlets and 
fill up the basins, so that no chain of lakes would have remained, but 
an ordinary river valley would have been formed, flowing north as 
the interglacial stream probably did. But the old valley was too much 
filled wdth drift. There thus remains a series of ponds with dams of 
drift piled across the old valley. The east and west chains are similarly 
old valleys in which ponds of water are held by the drift materials which 
were deposited in the valleys from the glacier, but which were not enough 
to entirely fill the valleys. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE BEGINNINGS OF MINNESOTA— THE RANGES 

The Oldest Known Land. The oldest part of Minnesota of which 
we have any knowledge may be spoken of as the beginnings of it. 
Rocks that are literally older than the hills are those beginnings. Such 
rock formations are seen in what is usually called the Ranges of north- 
eastern Minnesota. There they are at or near the surface of the ground. 
In other parts of the State they are more covered. At Minneapolis, 
they were struck in a deep well-boring at 2,050 feet depth or 1,200 feet 
below sea level. At St. Cloud they are at the surface and are the source 
of the St. Cloud building stone granites, at about 1,000 feet above sea 
level. In the Minnesota River valley they are seen at New Ulm, 
Granite Falls, Redwood Falls, Montevideo, and Ortonville, all at 800 
to 1,000 feet above sea level. In fact the beginnings of Minnesota are 
so near the top that where they are not seen at the surface, they can 
nevertheless be found by the boring of wells anywhere in the State. 
If it were not for the covering of glacial drift from 1 to 500 feet thick, 
the greater part of the State would be seen to consist of those Ranges. 



Fig. 108. Map of the Iron Ranges. 
20G 



THE BEGINNINGS OF MINNESOTA— THE RANGES 207 

What would Minnesota look like if everything was removed from 
it except those "beginnings" that we call the Ranges? If the level 
beds of old sea deposits, — the Cambrian sandstones, the Ordovician sand — 
and limestones, the Silurian (if any), the Devonian limestones, and the 
Carboniferous beds, with the glacial drift over them, — were all removed, 
this would take away the level land and hills of southeastern Minnesota, 
and leave there a lake or a sea. The shore of that sea would run about 
along a line from Taylor's Falls to Elk River, Mankato, and Fairmont. 
From that shore, looking north and west, the- land would rise 1,000 feet 
in a few miles, like an old mountain range, — which, in fact, it is. And 
beyond this old mountain range to the northwest would extend another 
great valley in which would be probably an arm of the sea covering 
northwestern Minnesota and much of the Dakotas. So much is known 
from what we can see at the surface and from well drilling. 

The Iron and Copper Ranges. The "Ranges" are spoken of as the 
Copper Ranges and the Iron Ranges in northeastern Minnesota. The 
Copper Ranges are great flows of lava or what were lavas before they 
set into rock. This lava rock came up through fissures or breaks in 
the Iron Ranges and hence the Copper Ranges are known to be not as 
old as the Iron Ranges, although they are nearly as old. Dikes or 
breaks in the older rock that are filled with this lava are found even 
in the Minnesota Valley and it is easily understood that when these 
ranges were young mountains, there was great volcanic action all across 
central Minnesota from the northeast corner to the southwest corner. 
Only the largest of the volcanic rock masses lasted long enough to en- 
dure through the geologic ages till now. 

The south Copper Range in Minnesota is mostly in Pine County 
and runs from there into Wisconsin, parallel to the south shore of Lake 
Superior. The north Copper Range is the height of land parallel to 
the north shore of Lake Superior, in northeastern Minnesota. Neither 
of these "Ranges" has produced much copper though they have invited 
the prospector at times, because they belong to the same system and 
class of rocks as those in Michigan that have produced copper in great 
quantity. The famous copper-bearing rocks of Keweenaw Point, Michi- 
gan, give name to all these rocks and to the age when they were in the 
making, — the Keweenawan. 

The Iron Ranges of northeastern Minnesota lie to the west of the 
Copper Ranges. These are ranges in fact, being the bases or roots, so 
to say, of old mountain ranges. While we call them the beginnings of 
Minnesota, they contain evidences of clays, sands., and lime beds that 
must have been laid down horizontally in some sea there before the 
folding of them into ranges began. And those clay-sand-lime materials 



208 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



came from some still older land by weathering' and washing into that 
sea. The clay has become slate or mica schist. The same process by 
which a boy makes an icy ball out of snow, makes, in a more gigantic 
way, hard rock out of soft rock in the folding and squeezing up of 
mountain ranges. Some of the rock thus squeezed appears to have 
become lava, by reason of great heat and pressure, and hence the Copper 
Ranges of lava rock breaking up through the Iron Range structures. 




Fig. 109. Jasper Peak, One of the Highest Points in Minnesota. First Mine in Vermilion 
Range was Opened near the Tree in Center. 

The three Iron Ranges in northeastern Minnesota, — the Vermilion, 
the Mesabi and the Cayuna Ranges, — trend northeast and southwest. 
There are other such ranges in the Northern Wisconsin and Upper 
Michigan region and they also trend northeast-southwest. North of 
Lake Superior in Canada, there are others. The Ranges in Minnesota 
are only part of what is called the Lake Superior Iron Region and that 
is only an extension or wing of the Labrador land mass, — the begin- 
nings of the continent. The Ranges do not end in the Lake Superior 
region, or northeastern Minnesota, although their names end there. The 
old mountain ranges continue under deeper drift covering across the 
Minnesota River valley and even a few points of very hard rock are 
exposed under the Cretaceous formations and the glacial drift in the 
southwest corner of Minnesota in Rock County, and in the corner of 
South Dakota. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF MINNESOTA— THE RANGES 209 

North of Lake Superior in Canada and in part of Cook and Lake 
Counties of Minnesota, the glaciers swept away all the soil and nearly 
all loose rock fragments. Copper or iron ore there could be seen at the 
surface if it existed. On the L^on Ranges there is some glacial drift to 
conceal the ores, until a little exploring is done, but under the drift 
the ore lies next, as a rule, where the ore bodies exist. To the south- 
west of the known iron-bearing ranges, the glacial drift is thicker, 
exploring is more difficult, mining would be too expensive, and not all 
is yet known. It may be that the best as well as the most of the iron 
ores are in the Iron Ranges proper, where the glaciers left some drift 
to cover them but not enough to put them out of easy reach. It seems so. 

The workable iron ore deposits of the State, when marked on a 
common map, look like mere spots and specks, and the Iron Ranges, rep- 
resented by the real iron ore deposits, would look like a ragged row 
of dots and bands on such a map. The proportion of good iron ore 
to the Ranges as a whole may be compared to the nails in a wooden 
house, and yet the name ''Iron Ranges" is not intended to be a decep- 
tion but only an abbreviation for iron-bearing ranges, or formations, — 
formations capable of producing from one-fourth to one-third of the iron 
ore output of the world. 

Origin and Occurrence of Iron. If iron were as precious as gold 
or silver almost "any farm in Minnesota would be a mine. Iron,' however, 
is one of the ten most common elements in the earth. Earth or rock 
is called iron ore when the amount of it is large and the proportion of 
the iron in it is great. "Low grade" ore of iron means iron ore that is 
not "high grade" and also that which is below grade. A body of rocks in 
which there is either too little iron or too much of other minerals to 
be usable, is called low grade ore, generally, though it is only a near-ore. 
There is much more of "low grade ore" in the State than there is of 
iron ore proper. 

Not only most rocks but also all living things contain some of the 
element, iron. What is called bog-ore is a residue of iron from plants 
that have decayed and dissolved away so as to leave a mass of iron 
rust. The common weed called the sting nettle leaves a bed of iron 
where it has grown year after year and decayed. The common forms 
of iron ore are the combinations of the metal iron with elements of 
the air and water, — iron carbonate, iron hydrate, and iron oxides. 

If a hill or a mountain is dissolved away by rain soaking into it 
and through it for ages, so as to take out lime and other minerals that 
can be dissolved in water, the iron may remain, with some clay or sand, 
and become ore. The hill thus shrinks to relatively little and the iron 
ore in it is known as residuary ore. 



210 



THE i^TORY OF THE NORTH l:^TAR STATE 




THE BEGINNINGS OF MINNESOTA— THE RANGES 211 

When water that contains a little iron, either from the decay of 
vegetable matter or from the oxidizing of minerals that contain iron, 
seeps through a mass of rock that is iron-bearing, the water may, and 
usually does, give up its little load of iron and comes out iron-free 
In that way the iron-bearing rock is ''enriched" gradually to what is 
called iron ore. 

In a great many places in Minnesota, on hillsides or near peat bogs, 
may be found residuary iron and enriched iron deposits that are ''rich" 
enough for use as iron ore for smelting. There may be a ton or a few 
thousand tons of it in a place. That is not enough to be worth while 
to dig and ship, however. The cost of marketing is more than the 
market price of iron ore except for large mines that have machines for 
loading and are on railway trackage and within shipping distance of 
their particular market. A ton of the best iron ore is worth less than 
an ounce of gold. 

Summary. The map shows the three Iron Ranges in northeastern 
Minnesota, the Vermilion, the Mesabi, and the Cayuna Ranges. This 
district of northeastern Minnesota is a part only of what is called the 
Lake Superior Region, which extends both south and north of the lake. 
There are other ranges in the north Wisconsin-Michigan region and 
some in Canada, all having the same general northeast to southwest 
trend and parts of the same great system. Those of Minnesota are the 
largest producers of iron. The Baraboo Range in southern Wisconsin 
belongs to this group of ranges and has produced some iron ore. 

The Iron Ranges of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan are, as a 
whole, geologically, an extension or wing of the Labrador land mass, — the 
oldest of rock formations in North America. North of Lake Superior 
in Canada, and in Cook and Lake Counties, Minnesota, there is mainly 
bare crystalline rocks at the surface with boulders and pebbles with but 
little soil or glacial till. On the Iron Ranges, however, there is some till 
with soil in most places. 

The Ranges do not end in the Lake Superior Region but extend, as 
a whole, to the southwest part of the State, though under an increasing 
cover of drift. Part of it is exposed in the Minnesota River valley where 
the drift has been cut through by the former outlet of glacial Lake 
Agassiz. There is a little of bare rock at the surface in the southwest 
corner of Minnesota and South Dakota, at Pipestone and Luverne, and 
Sioux Falls. Otherwise in that region there is Cretaceous formation, 
shales, and sands, between the drift and the "bed-rock." 

The "Iron Ranges" means that the iron ore is found in what may 
be called the roots of old mountain ranges, — so old that they have been 
almost leveled off by weatherinec. The ore masses or bodies are not all 



212 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

quite alike and even expert geologists may not agree in any case as 
to just how and Avliy an iron ore body is where it is or how it came 
to be just as it is, but the general manner of their forming is not dis- 
puted. There were real mountain ranges there with volcanoes and 
upfolded rock beds. The mountains weathered, leached, and washed off 
for geologic ages. The iron ore bodies are incidental to the life history 
of the ranges. 

Last of all, — or nearly so, — glaciers came that tore away some of 
the iron ore and strewed pieces of it in the drift down across southern 
Minnesota and Iowa and buried the rest of it on the Ranges under 
a drift cover or sheet. The drift over the ore is now the "stripping" 
that has to be made for open pit mines. 



CHAPTER XXV 
CANNON FALLS AND RIVER 

Location and Name. Cannon River rises in Shields Lake in Rice 
Connty. It flows at first west into LeSueur County as if going to the 
Minnesota. It reaches Gorman Lake and from there runs south to 
Tetonka Lake, and thence starts its course east by Waterville back 
into Rice County. It runs northeast through Sakata, Morristown, and 
Cannon Lakes across Rice County, and finally across Dakota and Good- 
hue Counties to the Mississippi River near the city of Red Wing. 

In its upper course Canrion River can hardly, be said to flow at 
all, or to "rise" anywhere. Shields Lake overflows and the water ponds 
its way from lake to lake west, south, east, and north, almost complet- 
ing a circle. A few rods east of Shields Lake is Mazaska Lake which 
discharges northeasterly directly to Cannon River. 

The chief branch of Cannon River, called Straight River, or Owa- 
tonna in the Dakota Indian language, is a very crooked meandering 
stream. It may have been named "Owatonna" in derision, as is claimed 
by historians, though it is said also on about as good authority to have 
been named for a Mr. Straight. Cannon River, however, was not named 
because it "shoots" so crooked from head to mouth, but by error. It 
was called Canoe River at its mouth, and the name was changed on 
maps incidentally, or accidentally, to Cannon. It might have been appro- 
priately called Canyon River, as its valley from Red Wing up to Cannon 
Falls would warrant that name, as its valley in this part of its course 
is, in fact, a deep canyon having steep walls of limestone rock 400 
feet high on either side. 

Two River Systems Combined. Geologically Cannon River is made 
up of parts of more than one rival river system. Straight River formerly 
belonged to another system, and flowed into the Minnesota, and Little 
Cannon River was all the Cannon there was. The glacial invasions of 
Minnesota, which gave the many lakes to the landscape, also changed 
the direction of discharge of the river. Straight River formerly ran 
from above or south of Owatonna straight to where Cannon Lake now 
is, and thence northwest to the Minnesota. That was before the last 
invasion of the great ice sheet. Later when the ice still lay over the 
present valley of the Minnesota, and the present Cannon Valley had 
not yet been uncovered from the ice, Straight River flowed in the oppo- 
site direction, or south by Bixby and east of Blooming Prairie to the 
Cedar Valley. 

213 



214 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



At one time a stream from near Northfield ran npstream as direc- 
tions now are to Cannon Lake. This was also before the last invasion 
of ice. The change in the direction of discharge, which was caused 
by the blocking of the valley by the drift deposited by the great ice 
sheet, is what caused the Cannon. Falls to be formed. 

The original Cannon was the Little Cannon. Little Cannon River 




Fig. ni. Redwood Falls, Ramsey State Park. Photograph by J. P. Wentlintj. 

heads near Nerstrand now, and runs by Cannon Falls city, where the 
big Cannon comes into control. During the long Tertiary time, which 
is the geologic period preceding the Quaternary or glacial period, when 
the Mississippi River valley was making, the Little Cannon likewise cut 
the great canyon-like Cannon Valley from Red Wing to Cannon Falls. 
Valleys Filled with Drift and New Courses Established. At the 
time of the earliest glacial invasion of Minnesota all the Cannon Valley, 



CANNON FALLS AND RIVER 215 

and that of the Mississippi also down to a point below Red Wing, was 
covered by the glacier. All was left drift covered after the glacier 
disappeared. This region was probably invaded by ice twice, and each 
time the basin of Little Cannon was left drift covered, with many lakes 
and ponds, and intermittent streams. The springs that had issued from 
the limestone hills were buried underneath 50 to 200 feet of glacial 
till, and were dead. But drainage, such as it was, kept in the old course, 
and, given storms and floods, and time enough, the valley was bound 
to be washed clear again. The valley has been cleared of the old drift 
except on the tops of hills and divides and in a few of the branch 
valleys where stream action failed to follow the old lines. 

In the inter glacial interval, after the Kansan glaciation, there 
were two main branches of the stream, one, the Little Cannon as now, 
and the other the Chub Creek branch. This latter occupied a valley in 
the south part of Dakota County, not only where Chub Creek now runs, 
as far east as Randolph, but it continued its course to the north of 
Randolph, and north of the line of flat topped hills for 10 miles, and 
joined the Cannon where the southeast corner of Dakota County now 
is, about 5 miles east of Cannon Falls. (It should be borne in mind 
that there was no Cannon River at Randolph at that time.) Prairie 
Creek joined Chub Creek in Dakota County northeast of Randolph. All 
these streams were free from gravel terraces, such as occur along the 
valleys of these streams now, and the streams had eroded down into 
bed-rock. 

In the lUinoisan glacial stage, at the time when the glacier 
diverted the Mississippi for some distance across high land at Rock 
Island, 111., and a glacial lobe across northern Wisconsin supplied 
flood waters and outwash of gravel to fill the Mississippi Valley from 
the St. Croix River downward, the Cannon Valley was back-watered 
at its mouth above the present level of the valley floor. The lobe of 
the Illinoisan glacier that came across Wisconsin crossed Dakota 
County just to the old Chub Creek valley below, or northeast of Ran- 
dolph, and from its border it discharged floods of water with gravel 
that filled the valley (as can be now seen) so full that Chub Creek 
waters had to cut across from Randolph to Cannon Falls to escape. 
These great gravel deposits now form the broad, flat plain about Ran- 
dolph. The Chub-Cannon line of drainage was probably not cleared 
of that Illinoisan gravel deposit enough for the streams to get to bed- 
rock again except across the old divide below (east of) Randolph. The 
valley there was widened by erosion during the long time until the 
coming of the glaciers again in the so-called Wisconsin stage. 



216 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Drainage Reversed and Falls Formed. Of the glaciers that came 
into Minnesota during the Wisconsin, or last stage of glaciation, the 
one from the north (Patrician) touched only the head of Chub Creek, 
and affected the Cannon Valley but little. But the glacier that came 
from northwest down the Minnesota Valley spread out east as far as 
Northfield, and sent floods of water from there down Cannon Valley 
As that glacier's border receded and more water from it came down 
the Cannon, gravel terraces show that a large stream flowed from above 
Cannon Lake down to the Mississippi. This new stream made a rock 
rapids where it crossed the old divide where Northfield now is. (It 
will be recalled that a stream had formerly headed near the present 
Northfield and flowed west to Cannon Lake.) 

At Cannon Falls the valley of the Little Cannon was filled with 
gravel and the stream back-watered. The waters escaped so close to 
the east wall of its valley that a new channel was formed across an old 
spur of the Shakopee limestone formation that had bordered the valley 
before the gravel filling Avas deposited. As the valley below was 
cleared of the gravel the Little Cannon Falls formed where the stream 
plunged over the limestone ledges at the spur. Likewise w^heie the 
new and enlarged Cannon River came into the older Little Cannon Valley 
that stream formed a fall over the ledge of the Shakopee limestone. 

There is now an electric power dam below the falls, which sub- 
merges both the fall of the old Little Cannon and that of the larger 
new or main Cannon, in an artificial lake. 

Resume. It is thus seen that Cannon River has a somewhat com- 
plex history. The deep canyon from Cannon Falls to Red Wing w^as 
cut by the Little Cannon during Tertiary time. This was filled with 
drift during the glacial period, probably at two different times, only 
to be cleared out again by later erosion. The Little Cannon was origi- 
nally fed by Chub Creek and Prairie Creek. A stream heading near 
Northfield flowed in the opposite direction, its course being reversed 
by drift which blocked its westward flow. Straight River, now the 
principal tributary of Cannon River, formerly flowed to the Minnesota, 
and for a time was compelled to discharge southward, or in opposite 
direction to its present direction. Finally after the ice of the last (Wis- 
consin) invasion had melted, waters from Shields Lake, as the modern 
Cannon River, pool their way west, south, east, and north, ''upstream" 
of the original drainage, past Northfield and across the old divide be- 
tween the old Straight and Little Cannon systems, and take possession 
of the old Little Cannon Valley. 



""1 





1. Burntside Lake, Ely. 

2. Camp Van Vac, Burntside Lake. 

3. Burntside Lodg-e, Burntside Lake. 



218 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




Fig. 1V2. Map of the Soil Districts. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 

The Greatest Natural Resource. The greatest of Minnesota's nat- 
ural resources is her soil. It is the one indestructible storehouse of the 
food supply for the present and future generations. Its fertility may 
be reduced but it cannot be destroyed. The term "worn out" as applied 
to soils is only relative. Mines may be exhausted; forests may be de- 
stroyed; soil, however, the source of plant food, cannot be destroyed. 
By proper management it may be ever renewed and rendered fertile. 
As long as the earth remains plants will grow. 

Definition of Soil. Soil has been defined as that in which plants 
grow. It has also been defined as broken rock. A good soil has been 
defined as ''rock dust, organic matter, and moisture, well mixed." 
Plants grow better in some soils than in others. Soils that are alike in 
richness or fertility may not be equally productive. Eich soils are 
sometimes unproductive. Other factors beside the chemical elements of 
the soil influence plant growth. 

One of the most important things about soil is subsoil. Subsoil is 
the layer or zone of the loose-mantle covering of the earth that lies 
immediately below the soil, and on the one hand is of the same nature 
as the overlying soil except for changes that have been brought about 
by weathering, and on the other hand it is like the underlying rock 
or formation from which it has been formed. Subsoil differs from soil 
in that it lacks humus, or organic matter, it is less oxidized, and is 
more compact. Subsoil differs from soil in color, and may often be 
distinguished by this means. Soil is blackened by the presence of 
humus, — the charcoal of partially oxidized organic matter. Subsoil is 
yellow, brown, gray, red, or blue, due to the mineral substances of which 
the broken rock fragments are composed. 

The character of the rocks or formation from which the subsoil has 
been formed determines the chemical elements that the soil as well as 
the subsoil may contain. Soluble elements are lost through surface 
erosion or leaching less generally by the subsoil than the soil. 

Character of Minnesota Soils. Minnesota soils are naturally rich 
because they are made up of a mixture of many kinds of broken rock, 
with age-long accumulation of decayed organic matter. As has been 
stated, the character of the rocks determines the chemical elements that 
the soil may contain. About every kind of known rock has entered 
into the formation of Minnesota's soils. 

219 



220 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



The surface formation of the land area of nearly all of Minnesota 
is a glacial formation, a mixture of fine and coarser rock materials, 
transported, broken, and pulverized by glacier ice. 

General Types of Glacial Soils. The greater part of all the glaciated 
land surface of Minnesota is what is known as till-plain or ground 
moraine, and is fairly uniform over wide areas. The formation from 
which the soils have been formed is till. This consists of clay, the finest 
of broken rock, silt or rock flour, sand, pebbles, and boulders. The sur- 
face has been oxidized by weathering agencies and blackened by the 
decay of vegetable matter. Many of the thousands of productive farms 
in Minnesota are tracts of till-plain. The subsoil differs from the soil 





wm 


l^^^^^^^l 




%% 






"■■■ :. -'*" *:. 


1 


f: j'l 






'/-t^V 




^ . ' 







Fig. 113. Cut-Over Land Rapidly Becoming Farms, near Baudette. 

chiefly in that it has been less leached of its soluble minerals, and con- 
tains less of humus or organic matter. 

Next in extent and importance are the belts and ridges of terminal 
moraines. These, like the till-plains, are a direct deposit from the melt- 
ing ice of the great glaciers. The morainic lands are more varied in 
character, though mostly clayey soils. The surface of the moraines is 
more uneven and rolling, with wet basins and lakes, though generally 
well drained because of the slopes. The soils of the terminal moraines 
are generally somewhat more porous than those of the till-plains and 
the moraines are more or less stony. Scattered among the morainic 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 



221 



hills are many lakes, ponds, and sloughs. These are in hollows between 
the hills. Hills and hollows, or "knobs and kettles," are generally a 
pretty good indication of terminal moraines. 

Outwash plains occur often, bordering terminal moraines. They 
were formed by waters flowing away from glaciers at the time when 
the moraines were being deposited from the melting ice. They are gen- 
erally sandy and gravelly in character, but are never stony. There is, 
perhaps, no surface formation in the State that varies so greatly in char- 
acter of soil and in agricultural value as the outwash plains. 

Drift materials which were assorted and deposited by ponded 
glacial waters, known as lacustrine or lake deposits, make up another 
important class of glacial soils. The largest and most important area 
of this class of soils is that of the Red River Valley, or the bottom of 




Pig. 114. Clover on Rolling Moraine in Otter Tail County. 

glacial Lake Agassiz. This area lies in northwestern and northern 
Minnesota. 

The soils of this class vary from the heaviest clay soils, deposited 
in the deeper waters of the lake, to the light sandy and gravelly types 
at and near the old shores. The lacustrine plains are flat, nearly level 
surfaces, and in places require artificial drainage for most successful 
farming. The lacustrine soils are among the most productive in the 
world. 

A secondary effect of glaciation in determining the character of 
soils is that of the action of the wind in carrying fine particles of broken 



222 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

rock in the form of dust during the closing stages of the Glacial Period, 
and probably before a soil mantle had been formed. Such are the loess 
soils. The loess loams of the southeastern counties of the State, and 
also of the extreme southwestern corner, are dust of interglacial times 
that was blown off the deserts of the great southwest and lodged in the 
vegetation-covered hills of Minnesota, as also in Iowa and Illinois, and 
elsewhere. It is from 1 to 20 feet thick in Minnesota. It is without 
either pebbles or coarse sand. Of a character related to the loess de- 
posits but of a somewhat different character are the wind-blown sandy 
tracts north of St. Paul in Anoka and Isanti Counties. 

Soil Classification. Practically all soils are composed of sand and 
clay with a varying admixture of pebbles and larger rock fragments, 
to which has been added organic matter, called humus, from the decaj^ 
of vegetal life. The texture of soils is determined by the proportions 
in which the sand and clay are mixed, and the system of classification 
is based on this fact. 

At one end of the list of soil classes stands clay. Next in order is 
silt, which is rock ground to fine flour. Then follows sand, fine and 
coarser, and then gravel. Following this gradation in fineness of rock 
particles the classes of soils make up the following list : clay, clay loam, 
silt, silt loam, loam, sandy loam, and gravelly loam. Any one of the soil 
classes may contain a considerable amount of stone, in which case the 
word "stony" is prefixed, as stony clay loam, stony loam, and stony 
sandy loam. 

The Term **Clay" as Applied to Soils. The finest grained soils in 
the world are called clays. Thus there is Fargo clay (Lake bottom or 
lacustine series) ; Marshall clay (Upland prairie series) ; Sioux clay 
(River-wash series) ; and many others. It should be clearly understood 
that the term clay as applied to soils means a clay soil, and not clay rock. 
A rock formation may be clay, in which case it is clay rock, not clay 
soil. The term clay as here used refers to clay soil, not clay rock. 
Rock is not soil. It is not "broken rock." Clay soil is very finely 
broken rock. It is rock reduced to the finest powder. Examined under 
the microscope the particles of clay are tiny "boulders" or fragments 
of minerals. Of the finest grains of clay as many as ten thousand placed 
side by side would extend one inch. Of the coarsest grains five thousand 
would extend one inch. 

The term "clay loam" is often popularly used in describing soils 
when in fact the term loam or sandy loam should be used. A loam soil 
contains sand and clay in such proportions as to make a very satisfactory 
soil for cultivation. A sandy loam is somewhat lighter, but is generally 
a good farm soil. Clay loam, on the other hand, is a heavy soil, and 



THE 80IL& OF MINNESOTA 223 

often requires artificial drainage. The term "clayey" is used to indi- 
cate that the soil is dominated by clay rather than by sand. Soils are 
referred to as sandy when they contain more sand than clay, so that they 
would be regarded as "light" soils. 

The Soils of the "Driftless Area." Into the southeastern corner 
of the State, embracing Houston and the eastern part of Winona 
Counties, the glaciers never came. This is a part of the "Driftless Area" 
of the upper Mississippi Valley. There is no till or other deposits of 
glaciers in this district. The bed-rock is a limestone formation and a 
residual clay soil has been formed from the weathering of this rock. 
A wind-blown silt loam known as loess caps the higher lands and covers 
the gentler slopes, and even cliff slopes where it has not washed awav. 
Along the steeper valley sides limestone rock outcrops in many places, 
and there is no depth of soil or subsoil. Beneath the loess soil there 
is a deeper clay subsoil. The subsoil which immediately underlies the 
soil on the tops of the ridges and on the gentle slopes is of the same 
character as the soil except that it contains no humus and is less leached 
and oxidized. In the deeper and broader valleys alluvial or stream 
deposited soils and subsoils occur, much of which is not notably different 
from the loess soil. 





Fig. 115. Loess-Covered Driftless Area near Caledonia. 

Loess Soils of Southeastern Minnesota. West of the driftless area 
is a district embracing several counties which, like the driftless area, 
is well drained and has no lakes. It was, however, covered with a man- 
tle of drift (till) during the earlier glacial invasions (Kansan and 
Nebraskan), this mantle being 20 to 40 feet in thickness in the western 
portion of the district and thinning to a mere scattering of pebbles and 
boulders on the eastern edge of the district. This drift deposit has 
been covered to a depth of 15 to 20 feet with wind blown loess. The 



224 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



deposit made by the ice has been eroded or washed away to a great 
extent, and it is not sufficient to entirely fill the old valleys. The present 
surface is that of an old, well-drained landscape having its valleys 
partly filled with drift, and the ridges capped and the slopes strewn 
with drift, and mostly overlaid with wind-blown loess. In the eastern 
portion of the district the residual clay under the loess was formed from 
the weathering and decay of the limestone bed-rock before the ice came 
and it is now only thinly covered with scattering drift pebbles. The wind- 
blown loess formation extends westward into eastern Goodhue, south- 
western Wabasha, western Olmstead, northeastern Dodge, and central 
and western Fillmore. The loess formation is so heavy a deposit that 
the soils partake of the character of the loess rather than of the drift 
or the residual clay. The soil is a silt loam in texture, and is very pro- 
ductive. The loess soils are easily cultivated, free from stone, naturally 
porous so as to give good tilth to the soil, and it is generally rich in 
plant food. Southeastern Minnesota is noted for its productive farms. 
Its rank as a livestock and diversified farming section is very high. 

Loess Soils of Southwestern Minnesota. In southwestern Minnesota 
there is an area of Old Gray drift wdueh was not covered by the Young 
Oray drift of the later (Wisconsin) glaciation. It includes Rock County, 




Fig. 11 G. I^oess-Capped Hills in Pipestone County. Photofjraiili hij J. P. Wcntlituj. 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 225 

the southwestern part of Pipestone, and western Nobles Counties. Over 
this old drift there is a deposit of loess several feet in thickness. The 
soil, therefore, partakes of the nature of the loess rather than of the 
deeper till. It is a silt loam. The soils have been leached somewhat 
less than have the loess soils of southeastern Minnesota, due, probably, 
to the somewhat lighter rainfall and different climatic conditions. The 
soils of the southwestern part of the State, like the loess soils of the 
southeastern section, are very fertile, as the fine farms bear witness. 

Soils of the Old Gray Drift. West of the southeastern loess covered 
area to a line extending from southwestern Dakota County through Rice 
County, and thence approximately along the eastern boundaries of 
Steele and Freeborn Counties to the Iowa State line, the surface forma- 
tion is the deposit of Kansan drift, known as the Old Gray drift to 




Fig. 117. Eroded Upland in Old Gray (Kansan) Drift Northeast of Zumbrota. 

distinguish it from the Young Gray drift which covers it to the west, 
the latter being deposited during the later Wisconsin glaciation (Kee- 
watin glacier). 

This deposit is composed of clayey till. The subsoil is yellowish- 
brown in color to a depth approximately of 15 feet, but below this 
the deeper subsoil, which has not been oxidized, is bluish gray in color. 
The soil is dark due to humus or organic matter. The land is very 
fertile, and this district ranks among the finest farming sections in the 
world. The surface is drained toward the east, but the western part 
of the district is not dissected by streams to any considerable extent, 
as is the eastern part, and there are no lakes and no hills of notice- 
able size. 



226 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Soils of the Old Red Drift. A small district embracing- central and 
eastern Dakota County, northern Goodhue, and southeastern Washing- 
ton Counties possesses certain characteristics that are most readily 
explained by its oeologic history. The land was covered by the ice of 
the Kansan invasion (Old Gray drift), as was the region to the south, 
just described. But it was later invaded by the Labradorian glacier of 
the Illinoisan invasion, which, because it came over the iron-bearing 




I'm. lis. riaiu of Old (Jiay Drift, Kast of Liiverne. PliotoDiaiili hi/ J. P. Wcittliiijf. 



regions to the north and east, deposited red drift. This deposit is known 
as the Old Red drift. As the Illinoisan invasion occurred later than the 
Kansan the Old Red drift was left over the Old Gray drift. 

The deposit of red drift is not very deep, and it forms a covering 
only a few feet in depth over most of the district. The soil and subsoil 
have a distinctly red color, particularly in the more clayey portions, 
differing in this respect markedly from the yellowish brown of the 
Kansan drift, or the bluisli gray, or, where oxidized, yellowish brown 
of the Young Gi"ay drift (Keewatin). 

The soil is very productive, being particularly well adapted to the 
growth of red clover. The glacier which deposited the surface forma- 



THE i^OlLiS OF MINNEISOTA 



227 



tion came from a stony region, and there are therefore some quite 
stony tracts. 

A prominent range of somewhat gravelly hills of this formation 
(Old Red drift) extends across southern Dakota County from west of 
Hampton southeast in a belt 2 miles wide, thence eastward into northern 
Goodhue County, and northward to Etter. This is a terminal moraine, 
and marks probably the farthest extent southward of the Illinoisan 
glacier. 

Soils of the Young Red Drift. A district embracing a large part 
of Washington and Ramsey Counties, and the northern part of Dakota 
County, owes the nature of its soils to a drift deposit made by a glacier 
from the ice-field of old Patricia, lying north of Lake Superior, and 
spoken of as the Patrician glacier (see Chaper IV). The Patrician 
glacier left a red or pinkish red deposit from the Iron Ranges over 
which the ice passed. This is called the Young Red drift, as distin- 
guished from the Old Red drift of the Illinoisan ice invasion. 




IK;. 119. Moraine of Young Red Drift, near Stillwater. Photognujh htj F. J. Alicau- 

The red drift of the Patrician glacier was deposited over probably 
one-third of the entire State, extending west as far as central Wadena 
and Todd Counties, and southward beyond Minneapolis and St. Paul. 
A later invasion of ice from the northwest (Keewatin glacier), however, 



228 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

pushed across and left a deposit of gray drift over the red, except in the 
parts of the three counties referred to. 

The soil of this district is loam and is somewhat stony in character 
due to the hard rocks brought by the Patrician glacier from the hard- 
rock region north of Lake Superior. 

The red drift stony loam of this soil province is highly productive, 
being especially favorable for red clover and forage crops. 

The moraines are quite rugged, the hills being of such size as to 
lend dignity to the landscape. The rolling hills of northern Dakota 
County and central Washington County and eastern Ramsey County are 
clayey in character. Outwash plains formed by the waters of the melt- 
ing ice when the moraines were deposited cover considerable areas, and 
as these outwash plains are sandy in character the soil on these plains 
is a sandy loam. Central and northeastern Dakota County has a sandy 
loam soil, and similar sandy loam soils are north and west of St. Paul, 
and in southern and central Washington County. 

Soils of the Red Drift Overlaid by Gray Drift. A district including 
a portion of northwestern Ramsey County and extending west of the 
Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, and embracing Hennepin, north- 
eastern Carver, and eastern and northern Wright Counties was covered 
by the Patrician glacier, and a heavy deposit of red drift was left, 
forming strongly rolling moraines. This district was overrun by the 
Grantsburg lobe of the great Keewatin glacier, and a thin covering of 
gray drift was laid down over the red drift. The hills were in some 
measure leveled by the later ice, and hollows were in part filled with 
gray drift. A considerable mixing of red and gray drift also occurred. 

The soil of this region is derived more from the red drift than from 
the gray drift, but partakes of both. The red is a stony drift whereas 
the gray (Keewatin) drift is generally but slightly stony. 

The soil of this province is very fertile. It is in places stony, and 
the outwash plains along the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers are 
sandy. The variety in these soils makes a great diversity of crops and 
systems of farming possible. Corn, small fruits, clovers and grasses, 
and a wide range of garden crops are adapted to the soils in different 
localities. 

The Grantsburg lobe of the Keewatin glacier, already referred to, 
moved eastward over the red drift deposits of the area just described 
to and a little beyond the eastern boundary of Chisago County and 
the State. On the east side of the Mississippi River the area covered 
by the Grantsburg lobe has been extensively blanketed by dune sand, 
which covers much of Sherburne, Isanti, and Anoka Counties, and ex- 
tends to the St. Croix River in Chisago County. There are, however, 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 229 

morainic ridges and narrow till-plains standing in these areas of dune 
sand, most of these being composed largely of stony drift which the 
Keewatin ice gathered up from the Patrician (red) drift which it 
overrode. The dune sands are underlain generally by clayey Keewatin 
drift. In some cases the dunes have been piled onto moraines and some- 
times onto till-plains. The occurrence of clay under the sand deposits 
adds greatly to the value of the lands for purposes of cultivation, since 
the clay serves to hold the ground water table nearer the surface. 

Red Drift Soils of East Central Minnesota. The red Patrician drift 
is the formation from which the soils of east central Minnesota have 
been formed. Other glaciers invaded this region at earlier times and 
left their deposits, but the Patrician glacier deposited the drift Vv^hich 
forms the surface covering, and therefore determined its soil character. 

This soil district may be outlined as follows : From northwestern 
Wright County the western boundary of this soil province extends 
northwesterly across central Stearns County, a mile east of Cold Spring 
and 2 miles north of Richmond, to Albany and east of Sauk Lake, 4 
miles west of Long Prairie and along the west line of the belt of morainic 
hills west of Lincoln, northward past Motley, including southern and 
eastern Cass County to Cyphers and Longville, to Swatara in Aitkin 




Fig. 120. Red Drift Till-plain witli Forest near Foley. Photograph hy F. J. Alway. 

County, south by Aitkin, thence east to southwestern Carlton County, 
where the drift of the Patrician glacier is covered by that of the Superior 
glacier. The southern boundary of the province extends from beyond 
the State line in Wisconsin across southern Pine County by Pine City, 
to Braham in Isanti County, and along the course of a small moraine 



230 THE .STOKY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

into Mille Lacs County north of Princeton, thence approximately along 
the boundary of Sherburne County to St. Cloud, and southward to the 
northwest corner of Wright County. Within this great red drift soil 
province is therefore included all or nearly all of Benton, Morrison, 
Crow Wing, Pine, Kanabec, and Mille Lacs Counties, and nearly or 
quite one-half of Stearns, Cass, and Aitkin and parts of Todd, Wadena, 
and Hubbard Counties. 

There are included in tliis great soil province three principal soil 
types, or three kinds of geologic formation which determine soil char- 
acter. These are (a) terminal moraines, (b) ground moraines or till- 
plain, and (c) outwash plains. 

The hills of the moraines are sandy in character, and therefore the 
prevailing soil type is sandy loam or loam. The hills are sometimes 75 
feet in height, and there are many small lakes and sloughs. There is 
considerable stone in the drift, which gives rise to stony loam soil in 
some areas. The soil, as is generally the case on these red drift deposits, 
is very productive. 

This land is a natural home of red clover, and these rugged hills 
make splendid farms when brought under cultivation. There are no 
more productive lands in the State, or in any State, when systems of 
farming to which these soils are adapted are used. 

The most extensive and widespread of the deposits of the Patrician 
glacier, as of all the glaciers that entered Minnesota, is that of ground 
moraine or till-plain. A till-plain of splendid agricultural quality ex- 
tends from Cushing and Randall southward to Fiensburg and Swanville, 
Bowlus and Holdingsford, and southward toward St. Cloud. East of 
the Mississippi River the great till-plain extends from Brainerd south 
and east beyond Foley and Milaca, nearly to Princeton, thence north 
and east to the central part of Pine County. In this great till-plain 
is embraced southern Crow Wing and major parts of Morrison, Benton, 
Mille Lacs, Kanabec, and western Pine Counties. Another and similar 
till-plain lies east of Mille Lacs Lake, and embraces northeastern Mille 
I acs, southern Aitkin, northwestern Pine, and southwestern Carlton 
Counties. 

As has been said, this is fine agricultural land. It is the natural 
home of red clover. Corn, oats, clover, and cows will make this a 
leading agricultural district. The land was originally covered with a 
pine forest, and the first cost of clearing has held back the development 
of the teri'itory. There is considerable stone in places. When the lands 
are improved tliere are none better for diversified farming. The soil 
is a I'eddish dai'k loam. The texture is such as to give fine tilth to 
the soil. 



THE SOILS OF 31 INN E SOT A 231 

Loam Soils of Moraines in Southeastern Minnesota. A belt of 
terminal moraine from 15 to 30 miles in width extends from the Minne- 
sota River in northern Scott County south to the State line. This soil 
province embraces much of Scott, Rice, Steele, Freeborn, eastern 
Waseca, and eastern LeSueur Counties. The moraines making up this 
belt were formed on the east side of the great Keewatin glacier. In 
Steele and Freeborn Counties belts of morainic hills are separated by 
intervening tracts of till-plain or ground moraine. Many lakes abound 
throughout the district. Several outwash plains having a sandy loam 
soil were formed by waters escaping from the melting ice during the 
time of the retreat of the last glacier. 

The moraines are largely of clayey till. The till-plains have a 
dark loam soil. The rolling surface furnishes good drainage from the 
slopes. The drift from which the soil is derived represents a mixture 
of many rocks from the north, which were transported and pulverized 
by the great ice-plow. The region is a fertile one, and embraces many 
prosperous farms. 

Soils of Moraines in Southwestern Minnesota. A series of well 
defined terminal moraines occurs in southwestern Minnesota. These 
moraines were formed on the west side of the great Keewatin glacier 
at the same time that the great morainic belt in southeastern Minne- 
sota, just described, w^as formed on the east side of the glacier. The 
outermost of this series of moraines is called the Altamont moraine. 
Other moraines lie in generally parallel courses to the eastward, and 
represent successive halting places of the retreating glacier's edge. 

The Altamont moraine follows the crest of the Coteau des Prairies 
across Lincoln, Pipestone, Murray, and Nobles Counties. 




Fig. 121. Slope of the Cotead Des Prairies near Canby. Gray Drift Moraine. 



232 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

East of this moraine, and west of the next later or younger moraine, 
is a till-plain which is narrow in Lincoln County but grows broader in 
Murray County, and in Nobles and Jackson Counties becomes about 
30 miles in width. The morainic system east of this till-plain is very 
strong and complex. It is made up of numerous ridges or series of 
morainic hills. These are separated by narroAv till-plains in places, and 
again merged in broadly extended rolling and hilly tracts. The ridges 
of this morainic belt all lie on the northeast slope of the Coteau des 
Prairies, so that the more eastern ones are always at lower altitudes 
than the western. 

These moraines are composed largely of clayey till made up of the 
broken and ground up rock material carried by the ice. The soil is 
generally loam, and due to the variety of rocks entering into the com- 
position of the soil it contains all the necessary plant foods. The till- 
plains have generally a dark and rich loam soil. Some hills are gravelly, 
and stones carried and deposited by the ice are quite common. The 
subsoil is clayey in character, which gives good water holding capacity 
to the soil. 

West of the Altamont or outer moraine is a belt varying from 6 
to 15 miles in width on which a thin deposit of drift was made by the 
Keewatin glacier. This deposit is so thin that the valleys which were 
formed on the old Kansan drift surface (Old Gray drift) were not 
entirely filled. The soil is thus a mixture of Old Gray drift (Kansan) 
and Young Gray drift (Keewatin). The region is comparatively w^eJl 
drained, the present streams following mostly lines of drainage that 
existed before the Keewatin glacier came, whereas east of the Altamont 
moraine the old lines of drainage are practically all filled and obliter- 
ated. West of the Altamont moraine wind drifted silt coats the till to 
a depth of a few inches. The subsoil is a clayey loam, and contains 
fewer stones than the subsoil in the moraines to the east. 

Soils of the Lake Park Region. On the east side of the Keewatin 
glacier in central Minnesota was formed a very strongly marked 
morainic belt or system. This district is known as the Lake Park Region. 
This region embraces southern Becker, Otter Tail, nortlieastern Grant, 
Douglas, Pope, northeastern Swift, and northern Kandiyohi Counties. 
It is quite irregular in outline on its eastern or outer margin, and more 
simple and even on the inner or western side. In places this morainic 
tract is interspersed with till-plains or ground moraine and outwash 
plains. In northern Kandiyohi it embraces a belt of rolling hills 12 
to 15 miles in width ; in Otter Tail County, including outwash plains 
and ground moraine, it is nearly 50 miles across from east to west. 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 



233 




Fig. 122. Homestead on Clayey Moraine in Otter Tail County. Photograph by F. J. Alway. 



The Lake Park Region of Minnesota is one of the most interesting 
scenic parts of the State, and of the North American continent. Its 
lakes and hills are magnificent. No finer example of terminal morainic 
topography exists anywhere. 

On the eastern side of this great moraine the soil is sandy in char- 
acter, and gravelly and stony knolls and ridges are common. Toward 
the west and south the soil has a more clayey character. The eastern 
side is marked by many outwash plains, formed by the waters that 
flowed away from the great melting glacier. On these sandy and 
gravelly plains the soil is light in character, and in places the soil is 
underlaid by deposits of gravel. The surface soil is often a dark or 
brown sandy loam, and when the subsoil is not too porous so as to 
allow too ready under drainage such lands are very productive. 

On the west side the moraine is bordered by till-plains having a 
clayey subsoil. In the greater part of this territory the drift is of such 
a character as to develop a loam soil at the surface, and the subsoil 
is generally clayey in character. 

South Central Minnesota. The broad valley which, in a general 
way, embraces south central Minnesota formed the main path for the 
southward movement of the great Keewatin glacier. The region here 
considered embraces the great undulating plain that extends west 
of Albert Lea, "Waseca, Waterville, Montgomery, Jordan, Hutchinson, 
and Willmar on the east side of the broad valley approximately to 



234 



THE ^TORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Jackson, Windom, Tracy, Marshall, and Gary on the west. This great 
undulating plain includes on the north side of the Minnesota River 
much of Nicollet, Sibley, McLeod, Renville, Kandiyohi, Chippewa, Swift, 
Stevens, and Big Stone Counti-es, and on the south of Minnesota River 
the western portions of Freeborn, Waseca, LeSueur, Faribault, Blue 
Earth, Martin, Watonwan, Brown, Cottonwood, Redwood, Lyon, and 
Yellow Medicine Counties. 

The axis of movement of the Keewatin glacier was along the present 
Minnesota Valley near Appleton in Swift County to the great bend 
of the Minnesota at Mankato, and south to Des Moines, Iowa. The 
broad plain rises gradually on either side of the river toward the inner 
border of the moraines that were formed on the eastern and western 
sides of the glacier. 

On this plain a few moraines were developed, which mark successive 
positions of the ice border as it was melting back from the vicinity of 




Fig. 123. Oats and Corn ou Clayey Moraine in Otter Tail County. I^hotoijntpli hi) F. J. Aliiat/. 

Mankato to the head of the Minnesota Valley. This great plain is 
largely prairie, and the soil is a rich black loam on its level portions, 
and a brown or chocolate colored loam on the morainic ridges. 

As the glacier receded or melted away waters were ponded along 
the edge of the ice. A result of this ponding was a deposition of silt 
over the till to a deplh of a few inches. The ponding was so short- 
lived that beaches or definite shore-lines were not developed. This sur- 
face deposit of silt adds a fine-grained quality to the soil. 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 



235 



Extensive outwash fjlains of fine sandy gravel were developed just 
outside of the moraine in southeastern Stevens, southwestern Pope, and 
northwestern Swift Counties, and also in southern Big Stone County. 
The soil of these outwash plains is generally a sandy loam. 

Between this moraine and the shore of Lake Agassiz there is an 
extensive till-plain covering much of Stevens and Big Stone Counties, 
and part of Grant and Otter Tail Counties. The greater part of this 
plain is clayey till having a dark loam soil. The surface is gently roll- 
ing or undulating, with numerous small lakes or depressions. Strips 
of gravelly and sandy soil, formed from the deposits of glacial streams, 
occur along the Pomme de Terre and Chippewa Valleys. A sandy out- 
wash plain of considerable extent having a sandy loam soil spreads 
from southeastern Stevens County east and south to Pope and Swift 
Counties, the city of Benson being on this plain. An outwash plain ex- 
tends across southern Big Stone County from about Odessa eastward 
to Appleton and beyond. 




Fig. 124. Red Drift Till-plain near Foley. Photograph by F. J. Alwaij. 

Gray and Red Drift Soils of Central Minnesota. Lying east of the 
Lake Park Region and west of the great red drift moraine in western 
Stearns and Todd Counties is a region of considerable variety of soils. 
For the most part the soil characters are determined by the gray drift 
of the Keew^atin glacier, but in places there is considerable admixture 
of red drift deposited by the Patri3ian glacier, from the northeast. 

This region is marked by well defined moraines, by smooth even 
till-plains, and by sandy and gravelly outwash plains. This region in- 
cludes some of the finest farming lands in the State. There are extensive 
tracts that are not yet developed, and much good land remains to be 



236 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

improved. There are some stony tracts, and there are soils tliat are 
light and sandy. 

The central portion of this province is mostly a smooth, gently 
rolling or undulating till-plain,, though it is interrupted by quite abrupt 
morainic ridges. The soil is a dark loam. The surface till, from which 
the soils are derived, is gray (Keewatin) drift. A belt from 8 to 15 
miles in Avidth extending from Poplar and Ellis in Cass County south 
and west to Bertha, Eagle Bend, Clarissa, and Browerville, and south- 
ward to Little Sauk and West Union in Todd County, has red (Patrician) 
drift mixed with gray (Keewatin). There is considerable stone in places, 
derived largely from the red drift. The soil is a splendid rich loam. 

A marked feature of this province is the outwash plains. These 
were formed by waters escaping from the melting glaciers. Some are 
sandy and gravelly. On some there is such an admixture of clay and 
silt with the sands and gravels as to give good quality to the soils. 
In some places these plains have a rich covering of black or dark loam. 
In other places the surface soil is a loose sand or gravel. 

A large outwash plain extends from north of Glenwood and Villard 
south and east past Brooten to New London and Paynesville. This plain 
is generally sandy, and the soil is mainly a sandy loam. The surface 
is undulating with fre(|uent lakes. Another and smaller outwash plain 
extends north and east from Alexandria. This is a sandy and gravelly 
plain, quite uneven in its surface, with a group of magnificent lakes 
occupying the larger and deeper depressions. About Parker's Prairie 
in southeastern Otter Tail County is an extensive outwash plain which 
reaches north and east into Wadena County, where it merges with the 
large outwash plain that covers a large part of Wadena County and the 
southern part of Hubbard County. 

About Parker's Prairie and northward the plain is uneven of sur- 
face and frequent lakes occupy the deeper hollows. The occurrence 
of many lakes in the basins on these sandy plains indicates that the 
groundwater table is not far below the surface, and this evident fact 
accounts for the successful agriculture that is practiced on this, and 
other similar plains. This outwash plain continues northward, as stated, 
covering southern Hubbard County, and extending also into Cass and 
Becker Counties. The part of this plain lying in southern Hubbard 
and southern Wadena Counties was overridden by the ice after the 
formation of the plain, and clayey till was thus spread over portions 
of it. This adds greatly to the productiveness of the soil. The portion 
of the plain extending west of Park Rapids into Becker County has a 
sandy loam soil, and many lakes in the depressions. 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 237 

A glacial lake occupied central Meeker County. Lake sediments 
consisting of sand, silt, and clay occur in the region from Manannah 
to Forest City and Kingston. Sandy outwash was deposited along val- 
leys leading into the glacial lake from west of Manannah. At Litchfield 
and Darwin is a sandy outwash plain that was formed by the waters 
escaping northward into the lake from the ice which formed the moraine 
that lies across southern Meeker County. 

This glacial lake discharged northward through a broad channel 
past Eden Valley to the Sauk Valley at Richmond, and thence to the 
Mississippi. This old valley is now a flat marsh south of Eden Valley, 
and a gravelly and sandy plain extends below (north) on which a chain 
of lakes now lies. 

The moraines as well as the till-plains in Meeker County are very 
largely of clayey till, from which a loam soil has developed. The sedi- 
ments of the glacial lake above noted are of fine sand on the edge, but 
are a rich silt loam in the deeper part between Forest City and Kingston. 
The outwash plains have in places a loam soil and subsoil. A consid- 
erable part of the outwash, however, has a light sandy loam soil. 

The Lake Agassiz Plain. A vast region in northwestern and north- 
ern Minnesota is embraced in the region that was covered by the waters 
of glacial Lake Agassiz. The five counties of Red Lake, Pennington, 
Marshall, Kittson, and Roseau are entirely included in this area, and 
portions of the following 12 counties were covered by its waters : 
Traverse, Stevens, Grant, Otter Tail, Wilkin, Clay, Norman, Polk, Clear- 
water, Beltrami, Koochiching, and St. Louis. 

There are four types or classes of soils formed from the lake de- 
posits. These soil classes occupy somewhat irregular areas of the great 
lake bottom. The four classes or types are: (a) lacustrine or lake clay 
soils, formed from the fine sediments deposited in the deeper waters of 
the lake; (b) sandy soils formed from washed and assorted sediments 
in the shallower parts of the lake along and near the shores; (c) soils 
formed from lake-washed till on which only a thin deposit of lake sedi- 
ments was made, and (d) swamp, including deep peat and muck. 

Lacustrine Soils Formed from Deep Water Sediments. The axial 
portion of the Red River Valley in Minnesota embraces a belt extend- 
ing east from the Red River of the North from 16 to 18 miles. In this 
portion of the lake the finer sediments were deposited. The soil in this 
district is a heavy clay or clay loam. This belt of finer sediments merges 
into a sandy belt on the east or shore side of the lake bottom. 

This great lake bottom tract, including a similar belt lying west 
of the Red River of the North in North Dakota, and continuing also 



23S THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

into Canada, is one of the largest bodies of so nearly level land in the 
world. It is a region remarkable for its fertility. 

The soil is dark due to the presence of organic matter that has 
gathered in the soil since the disappearance of the lake. Except for 
occasional patches of boulders, which were either dropped directly from 
the melting ice of the glacier or were carried by floating ice on the 
lake and dropped as the ice melted, the area is nearly free from stones. 
On many fields scarcely a pebble can be found, 

Sandy Soils of the Shallow Waters. The lake-washed sand region 
of the Red River Valley extends from northern Wilkin County north 
ward to the international boundar}^, bordering the east side of the 
heavy clay region. In northern Polk County the shore of Lake Agassiz 
bears abruptly to the east. The belt of lake-washed sand, however, 
continues northward in an irregular belt to the international boundary. 
In central Polk, western Red Lake, western Pennington, and central 
Marshall Counties sandy and gravelly beach ridges are numerous, and 
between these ridges the soil is clayey in large part. 

The lake-w^ashed sand was deposited, in part, from materials 
brought into the lake by streams and in part from materials that came 
directly from the melting ice. It is, therefore, in part of glacial origin 
and in part lake sediments. The soil is usually a light, sandy loam. 
In places the sand is so thin that boulders left by the ice are only 
partly covered. There are also areas of sand and gravel extending to 
a depth of 3 to 5 feet or more. Portions of this lake-sand area have been 
mapped by the U. S. Bureau of Soils and classed as Fargo fine sandy loam. 

Soils from Lake-washed Till. A considerable area of lake-washed 
clayey till occurs in Polk, Red Lake, Pennington, Marshall, and Roseau 
Counties. Interspersed throughout this district are also areas of lake- 
washed sandy till, swamp, muck, and peat, lake sand, and heavy lacus- 
trine clay, as also beach ridges of sand and gravel and wave-eroded 
moraines. So, also, there are irregular areas of all of these types of 
soil distributed throughout the great swamp which extends from the 
counties mentioned eastward across Beltrami and Koochiching Counties. 

The soils that have been derived from the lake-washed clayey till 
are generally loams, varying from heavy clay loam through the series 
clay loam, silt loam, loam, fine sandy loam, sandy loam, gravelly loam, 
and stony loam, and all generally with a clay subsoil. 

An area of lake-washed sandy till extends from north central Mar- 
shall County into southwestern Roseau County. Another area occurs 
east of Twin Valley in Norman County ; another south of Syre and west 
of Ulen, in Norman and Clay Counties; another south and east of 
Barnesville and west of Lawndale and Rothsav, in Clav and Wilkin 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 



239 



Counties; one east of Shirley and Euclid, in Polk County, is crossed 
by well-defined sandy and gravelly beach ridges. Other areas of this 
character occur in central and eastern Kittson County. 

A lake-washed moraine extends across Red Lake and Marshall 
Counties west of Red Lake and Thief Rivers from south of Thief River 




Fig. 125. Farm on Clayey Keewatin Drift East of Cook. 

Falls to Thief Lake. It is from 1 to 3 miles in width. It rises above 
the general level of the lake bottom plain only a few feet. These glacial 
deposits are of pebbly clay. Low swells 3 to 5 feet high occur, some 
of which can be observed in the city of Thief River Falls. The soil of 
the moraine is clayey loam similar to that of the lake-washed till-plains 
adjacent. 

In southeastern Roseau and northern Beltrami Counties are very 
large and broad sandy and gravelly beach-like deposits which were 
large sand-bars in Lake Agassiz. They are composed of sandy and 
gravelly glacial deposits which reached nearly or quite to the surface 
of the water of the lake. They represent an eastward continuation of 
the lake-washed moraine that crosses Marshall, Pennington, and Red 
Lake Counties. The waves of the lake passed entirely over them so 
that they were smoothed and leveled down a good deal, and as the lake 
lowered they became for a time islands in the lake. The higher por- 
tions were covered by beach sands and gravel, and lake sand was de- 
posited between their higher portions. The soils are sandy and gravelly 
loams. 



240 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Boulders sometimes occur in considerable numbers on the lake- 
washed till-plain. Their explanation is not entirely clear. They were 
transported by the ice, and may represent moraines the finer materials 
of which have been washed away by the waves of the lake. Such boulder 




Fig. 126. Clover on I.ake washed Till South of Baudette and Spooner. 

plains are unusually noticeable in Kittson County north of Orleans ; 
between Hemmington and Caribou ; and north of Pelan. In these areas 
the boulders are strewn upon the lake-washed till-plain, and indicate 
that they were deposited by the ice. Boulders are very numerous also 
on the sandy plain from Bronson south and east past Halma to the 
county line, a rare feature on so sandy soil. The presence of the 
boulders indicates that the sand may be largely a deposit made directly 
from the ice of the glacier, rather than borne in by the waves and 
currents of the lake. 

Soils of the Swamp Area. Clayey lake-washed till and swamp make 
up the greater part of the ancient lake bottom eastward from Red Lake, 
Marshall, Pennington, and Roseau Counties. The ancient lake extended 
across Beltrami and Koochiching Counties as far as Vermilion Lake in 
St. Louis County. The southern shore line is a little south of Lower 
Red Lake. The farthest eastern point of the lake was 10 miles west 
of Tower, south of Vermilion Lake. From this point the shore ex- 
tended northwest to the international boundary a little east of Inter- 
national Falls. 

The highest shore line of Lake Agassiz is marked generally by a 
well-defined gravel ridge or beach. Numerous gravelly and sandy 
.beaches were developed at lower levels,, some of which appear as narrow 
strips of dry land traversing the extensive swamps. 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 241 

A considerable part of this great eastern expanse of the lake is 
now a flat swamp, though much interrupted by islands and strips of 
dry land having a clayey soil derived from lake-washed till. A large 
area in northern Beltrami and central Koochiching Counties is known 
as the Beltrami Swamp, in reality a vast muskeg. The region was cov- 
ered by the shallow waters of Lake Agassiz, and so uniformly flat is 
the plain of this part of the old lake bottom that the growth of vege- 
tation has resulted in the formation of extensive peat bogs and muck 
deposits. Underneath the swamp is the clayey till deposited by the ice. 

North of Red Lake is the highest part of the swamp, and it was 
thought at one time to have been an island in the lake, and was referred 
to as Beltrami Island. Lake-washed sands, however, cover the highest 
portions, showing that it was covered by the shallow waters of the lake. 
Between Upper and Lower Red Lake is a sandy moraine which was 
an island in Lake Agassiz. 

In northern Koochiching County several moraines formed islands in 
the lake. North of Big Falls the Minnesota and International Railway 
crosses a moraine which extends southeast into St. Louis County. The 
part crossed by the railroad was an island in the lake. 

Much of the swamp land in this part of the State will become 
drained without artificial ditches as soon as the natural water courses 
are cleared of obstructions, such as fallen trees, stumps, and beaver 
dams. In fact, much land that has been classed as swamp is not swamp 
at all, but on account of the extensive groAvth of brush, and of the general 
inaccessibility of the region, accurate information has not been available. 

Soils of North Central Minnesota. An extensive soil province in 
north central Minnesota extends from the eastern shore line of Lake 
Agassiz in Clay, Norman, and Polk Counties, eastward to include 
northern Cass, western Itasca, and southweastern Koochiching Counties, 
lying south of Lower Red Lake and extending into northern Becker 
and Hubbard Counties. This province is quite abruptly separated from 
the ancient lake bottom to the west and north by the Herman beach, 
which is generally a well-defined sandy ridge. 

In this district are three great types of glacial deposits, and conse- 
quently three general classes of soils. These are: (a) moraines; (b) till- 
plains, or ground moraine; and (c) outwash plains. 

From Shell Lake and Ponsford, and the height of land in Becker 
County, eastward across southern Hubbard County, past Park Rapids 
and Latona nearly to Hackensack, is a large outwash plain. This out- 
wash extends south in Wadena County into the Crow Wing Valley, 
and southwest to Parker's Prairie in Otter Tail County. South of 
Fish Hook Lake, Lake Arago, and the Great Northern Railway from 



242 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



■~1 




Fig. 127. Gray Drift Till-plain in Mahnomen County. 



Photo(jrai>h hy F. J. Alwai/. 



Park Rapids to Nevis and Akele}^, the sandy morainic hills were par- 
tially leveled by the outflowing ice waters, forming a rolling plain of 
gravelly and sandy outwash. 

South of the moraine that crosses southern Beltrami County, south 
of Puposky and north of Turtle River is another outwash plain. Tiiis 
sandy plain is interrupted by tracts of till-plain or ground moraine 
which are clayey in character. A small but well-defined moraine occurs 
4 miles west of Bemidji. The outwash plain extends to Bagley, Shevlin, 
and Leonard on the west, past Turtle River, Bemidji, and Cass Lake, 
and to the south of and beyond Lake Winnibigoshish. 

The soils of this plain are generally light, and in places are blown 
into dunes. The intervening till-plains, notably east and south and 
west of Bemidji, are of splendid clayey quality, and have an excellent 
loam soil. 

A till-plain having a clayey loam soil of good quality, interspersed 
with clayey morainic ridges and blocked channels containing swamps, 
extends south of Bagley, in Clearwater County, east across southern 
Beltrami and northern Hubbard Counties, by Nary and Guthrie, to and 
beyond Tjcach Lake, to Boy River and Remer, in Cass County. 

Another till-i)lain lies south of Red Lake, embracing the territory 
from the vicinity of Island Lake and Nebish south and east to Puposky 
and Tenstrike. Another till-plain lies north of Lake Winnibigoshish. 



THE ISOILSI OF MINNE.SOTA 243 

The soils of the till-plaiiis are k)anLS of line (luality. The subsoil 
is generally of a clayey character, and gives good water holding (luality 
to the soil. 

From the Great Northern Railway at Gonvick, in Clearwater 
County, south and west, is a broadly rolling till-plain of excellent soil, 
better drained locally than the flat lands of the Red River Valley, and 
having a soil of equal fertility, though somewhat more diversified in 
character, and having frequent lakes and many undrained depressions. 

Between these till-plains, and bordering the outwash plains, are 
hilly tracts of terminal moraine, with many lakes occupying hollows 
among the hills. A large moraine extends across the south side of 
this province, from northeastern Becker County to and beyond Leech 
Lake. The moraines are frequently stony, boulders strewing the sur- 
faces of the hills and slopes. The soils of these moraines are generally 
sandy, though south of Leech Lake, and west of La Porte and Lake 
Kibekona, the soils are clayey in character, and are very productive. 

Overridden Moraines of Itasca County and the Iron Ranges. In 
central Itasca County is an extensive belt of moraines composed, in the 
main, of Patrician (red) drift, and containing many boulders. This 
region was, however, covered by the ice of the Keewatin glacier from the 
northwest, and a thin covering of gray drift was deposited by it over 
the red drift. The ruggedness of the hills was toned down a good deal 
by the later incursion of ice. There are many lakes, and practically 
no drainage streams have been developed since the ice disappeared. 

The soils are generally loams, varying from the heavier clay loams 
to sandy and gravelly loam. There are several outwash plains composed 
of sand and gravel, and many swamps occupying basins in partially 
filled water-courses that were blocked by the drift. 

Quite an extensive outwash plain extends from 10 miles west of 
Grand Rapids north through the center of the county. It has man.y 
hollows that are occupied by lakes. Another outwash plain extends 
south from Jesse Lake to the east of Bow String Lake. Another is in 
the northeast part of the county at the headwaters of Bear River. 

In the eastern part of Itasca County, and extending into St. Louis 
County between the Mesabi and Vermilion Ranges, is a gently rolling 
till-plain. Between Grand Rapids and Chisholm, and northward, the 
soil is generally good, but it is stony and rough in places, and sloughs 
and swamps are of frequent occurrence. Between the Vermilion and 
Mesabi Ranges are sandy moraines, steep and rugged, with many 
boulders. 

From Chisholm and Hibbing eastward to Iron Junction, Sparta, 
and Aurora is a fairly flat till-plain having good loam soil and com- 



244 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

paratively few stones. A similar till-plain having good soil varying from 
clayey loam to loam, with occasional patches of sandy and gravelly 
loam, extends northeast and southwest from east of the Duluth & Iron 
Range Railroad at Norman, Bassett, and Hornby southwest to the St. 
Louis River at Brookston. 

Two Ancient Lake Bottoms. A considerable part of north central 
Aitkin County was occupied by the waters of glacial lake Aitkin, and 
this fact explains many of the soil features of this region. This lake 
was caused by a ponding of glacial waters, and a broad sandy and 
silty plain resulted. The shore line of this lake was very irregular as 




Fig. 128. Breaking New Land on Clayey Soil of Glacial Lal^e Uottom, Meadowlands. 

the lake plain is surrounded, in a general way, by moraines, and the 
moraines formed headlands on the shores and islands in the lake. Much 
of the deeper part of the lake is now a swamp. The Mississippi River 
meanders across the old lake bed, and a deposit of fine sand borders 
this and other streams that cross the old bottom. Till-plains having a 
fine sandy soil form islands on the old lake bottom. Gravelly and sandy 
beaches extend around the irregular shore and around many of the 
islands. 

South of this ancient lake bottom are broad stretches of till-plain 
interspersed with shallow muskeg swamps and sharp morainic ridges. 
The knolls and ridges of the moraines are composed of gravel and sand 
and stony till. The surface of the moraines is often strewn with boul- 
ders. The level and gently undulating till-plains which separate the 
moraines have a productive loam soil. 

North and east of the bed of glacial Lake Aitkin, in northeastern 
Aitkin and southwestern St. Louis Counties, is another flat plain which 
is in considerable part occupied by muskeg swamp, the bottom of glacial 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA \ 245 

Lake Upliam. The plain of Lake Upham is crossed by Floodwood, St. 
Louis, Swan, and Whiteface Rivers. The ancient lake had its outlet 
by the present valley of the St. Louis, and was drained by the cutting 
down of the outlet by this stream through the moraine at Mirbat below 
Floodwood. 




Fig. 129. Dairy Herd at Meadowlands Farm. 

Along the streams which cross this ancient lake plain are deposits 
of clay, sand, and silt. Muck and peat underlaid with clay, occupy much 
of the flat portions of the ancient lake. 

The Northeastern Counties. A considerable part of Cook, Lake, 
and St. Louis Counties is too rough and rocky to be of much value for 
general agriculture under present day conditions. In time, as the 
demand for land becomes greater, districts that are now regarded as 
of no value for agriculture will be regarded more highly. 

It would probably be a wise policy if these lands could be devoted 
systematically to forest purposes for a few generations. 

A tract extending across northern Cook, Lake, and St. Louis 
Counties is mainly barren rock from which nearly every vestige of soil 
was swept southward by the Patrician glacier from the north. For a 
distance of 30 to 35 miles south from the Canadian boundary, or as 
far south as Pelican, Vermilion, and Birch Lakes, in St. Louis County, 
and about 6 miles south of Bald Eagle and Parent Lakes, in Lake County, 
the drift is very scanty on the hills and ridges. The Mesabi Range is 
mostly thinly coated with drift, though the south slope and the portion 
west of Chisholm is more heavily covered with drift. 

The northern part of Lake County is a very broken district, with 
rock knobs among which are lakes and swamps. There is very little 
land that is suited to agriculture. The greater part of this rocky area 
is included in the Superior National Forest. 



246 



THE ^TORY OF THE XORTH STAR STATE 



Rough rock ridges and hills are estimated to ()ceiii)y about 40 per 
cent of the area of Lake County. The hikes occupy about 12 per cent, 
and the swamps, as estimated by the State drainage engineer, embrace 
about 14 per cent. Of the remaining one-third a considerable part is 
stony loam, with many cobbles and boulders in the soil and on the 
surface. 

Bare rock, or rock with a very scanty covering of drift, occupies 
about one-third of the area of Cook County, mainly in the National 
Forest, in the northern part of the county. There is also a strip of 
rugged land known as Sawtooth Mountains which lies near the Lake 
Superior shore, west from Grand Marais. The combined areas of rocky 









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Fig. 130. Field of Oats on Keewatin Till-plain in St. Louis County. 
Photograph hij F. J. Alway. 

land, swamp, and lakes in Cook County embrace about 60 per cent of 
the surface. Of the remainder nuich is very stony and difficult to 
clear. Much of the land would probably be advantageously devoted to 
forest purposes. 

The moraines, which extend in a northeast-southwest direction 
through the southern part of the county, have generally rough surfaces, 
with sharp knolls including small swamps. The till-plains, however, 
which occupy a much greater area than the moraines, and which lie 
in belts extending northeast and southwest through the county, are 
gently undulating with slopes easy to cultivate. 

The prevailing type of soil in the morainic areas and on the till- 
plains in Cook, Lake, and St. Louis Counties is stony loam. When 



THE SOILS OF MINNESOTA 



247 



these stony lands are improved they are generally very productive. 
The finer particles of which the soils are composed have come from the 




Fig. 131. Section in a (Jravelly Outwash Plain in Lalie County. 

wearing and grinding of the hard rocks, and there has been little leach- 
ing or washing since the ice melted off from the landscape to carry 
away the soluble mineral elements from the soil. 

The Lake Superior Clay. Bordering Lake Superior is a belt of 
lake-formed deposits extending back from the lake from 1 to 6 miles 
on the north shore of the lake. West of Duluth these deposits, formed 
on the bottom of glacial Lake Duluth, extend to Thompson and Wren- 
shall, and west of Blackhoof to Nemadji and Moose Lake. The south 
line of these deposits is at Holyoke, east of which the deposit continues 
into Wisconsin. 

The drift which underlies the lake sediments is clayey in char- 
acter containing few stones in comparison with the drift deposits 
outside the lake area. The strip along the shore which was covered 
by the waters of Lake Duluth and lower stages of the lake down to 
the present Lake Superior, includes numerous gravelly ridges and 
beaches formed at diff'erent levels corresponding to the successive lake 
levels. The slopes between these gravel ridges have wave-washed drift 
consisting largely of coarse material, cobbles, gravel, and sand. 



248 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



The sediment deposited on the shore of Lake Duluth in Cook 
County and most of Lake County was sandy in character, there being 




Fig. 132. Pioneer Marketing at Cook. PliotO(jrapli hy F. J. Alicay. 

but little fine sediment. In the southwestern part of Lake County and 
across the part of St. Louis County that borders Lake Superior, and 




Fig. 133. Roseau River at Roseau, Minnesota. 



embracing a considerable area in eastern Carlton County, is a heavy 
clay soil having few stones. This is the famous red clay which borders 
the west end of Lake Superior, and is noted for the growth of red clover. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
OUT DOORS IN MINNESOTA 

The great ice sheets fashioned the landscape of most of Minnesota. 
The same great forces that changed river courses and established lakes 
determined also forests and prairies and the nature of the soils. These 
things in turn determine the character of plants- and animals. 

The agencies that have shaped the landscape and determined the 
quality of the soil made some places suited to be the abode of fishes, 
birds, and mammals. It thus comes about that every part of the State 
has its own features of special interest to the nature lover, the tourist. 




Pig. 134. Out Doors at Lake Itasca. 

the hunter, the fisherman, the camper seeking rest, the canoe voyageur 
seeking adventure. Lakes, riA^ers, swamps, and prairies offer a natural 
habitat to wild life. The ten thousand lakes embraced within the 
boundaries of Minnesota are unsurpassed on the continent for camping, 
fishing, boating, recreation, and rest. The great river systems of the 
southern and southeastern regions of the State offer in their deep val- 
leys and shaded slopes a natural home for fishes and many game birds. 
The prairies of the west and northwest teem not only with the products 
of fertile soil but are the home and feeding ground of great numbers 

249 



250 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




Fig. I.'l.j. Mille Lacs Lake. 




Fk;. lao. Moonlight on Lake Itasca, at Forest School Camp. 

of game birds of the field, while the sluggish streams and shallow lakes 
are a feeding ground for migratory bands of ducks and geese. The 
swamps and the forests of the north and northeast are the home of the 
bear, the deer, moose, and many animals sought by sportsman, hunter, 
and trapper. 



OUT DOORS IN MINNESOTA 



251 



The Great Provinces of the State. The contrast in the great 
geographic provinces of the State is very great. The great southeast 
lias no lakes, but streams flow in deep valleys. Here the trout, large- 








r^'S:\^^>£'^'->^' 




Fig. 137. Moose in Red Ls 



mouthed bass, rock bass, crappie, and other fishes find their natural 
home. The shaded pools and rocky gorges afford natural hiding places 
for fish. The botanist and bird lover find also here an attractive field. 




Fig. 138. .Beaver Dam, 



North Arm Biirnlside Lake. 
St. Louis Coimty. 



Superior National Forest. 



The forest plants of the valleys compete with the prairie loving j^lants 
of the uplands. Birds nest in both, The rough ledges furnish protec- 
tion and hiding to the Fox, Raccoon, and occasionally the Timber Wolf. 



252 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




OUT DOORS IN MINNESOTA 253 

Roads follow the stream courses, or wind along the ridges that divide 
the valleys. The panoramic view from a ridge top is often one of the 
finest. Trees abound in the valleys; grasses, flowers, and birds on the 
uplands. 

An auto tour in almost any direction across the State leads to some 
region of special interest. Well-graded roads, long reaches being hard 
surfaced or gravelled, lead in all directions. 

A drive through the Lake Park region offers a strong contrast in 
scenery to that of the river region of the southeast. It is also in 
marked contrast to the prairies to the south and west. The roads wind 
around lakes and over hills. On the shores of the lakes are the most 
inviting camping sites. Hotels and permanent summer camps are 
everywhere. Crappies, Pike, and Bass invite the bait-thrower. Beautiful 
drives through ever changing scenery invite in all directions. Once it 
was possible to get lost among the lakes and hills. Now goods roads 
lead everywhere. Directions — compass directions — go all to pieces here, 
as in the river region of the southeast. But follow the ^'main traveled 
road," or the blazed highway and the end of the road will be where 
you wish to go. 

In the prairie regions compass lines are systematically laid out at 
right angles. Here the fields are broad; the horizon extends far in a 
uniform line. Here are feeding grounds for flying myriads of geese 
and ducks. The shallow lakes, the sluggish streams, abound in the 
natural foods for birds. Here the Canadian Goose, the Canvas-back Duck, 
Red-head and Teal halt on their journey southward and fatten on the 
wild rice and other aquatic plants. Reeds and rushes offer them hiding 
and thus are an inducement to the passing flocks to alight and tarry. 

In the great north and northeast the forests of pine and hardwood 
add their charm to what the great ice sheets have done in fashioning 
the landscape. Fine roads lead through forests and over landscapes of 
rocks, amidst the native breeding haunts of wild fowl that in the fall 
hie to southern lands. 

Game, Past and Future. When the region that is now included 
in the State of Minnesota was first visited by white men, wild life was 
very abundant. The early explorers found great herds of Buffalo and 
Elk grazing along the bluffs of the Mississippi River. Deer filled the 
woodlands. Beaver abounded in all the streams and lakes, and the 
primeval forests of the north sheltered great numbers of Moose, Cari- 
bou, and Black Bear. The diversified and fertile upland and the equallj^ 
varied and bountiful waters supported a vast bird population. Ducks 
of many species bred in vast numbers. The honk of the Canadian Goose 



254 THE ^TORY OF THE NORTH ."^TAR STATE 

resounded far. About the margins of many shallow lakes Trumpeter 
Swans reared their young. 

With the advance of civilization and settlement some of these wild 
denizens of forest, lake, and prairie have disappeared. The catalogue 
of wild game animals, game birds, and game fish of Minnesota is, how- 
ever, a long one today, and thanks to the wise provisions that have been 
made through game and fish and forest protection, the list of attractions 
to the sportsman, hunter, trapper, fisherman, camper, and the nature 
loving tourist will probably continue to be a long one. 

Wild Four-footed Game. It is not intended or attempted to cata- 
logue here all the wild animals, birds, and fishes of Minnesota. The 
common game animals, birds, and fishes in which the hunter and fisher- 
man would be interested, and which appeal to the lover of nature, and 
to visitors and residents of the State generally, are given in this chapter. 

Among the most interesting of the larger wild game animals is the 
Northern White-tailed Deer. Its range is approximately the northern 
one-half of the State, in the forested regions. The Wapiti or Elk is 
probably now extinct in Minnesota. It formerly ranged throughout the 
forested regions of the State. The Moose or true Elk ranges throughout 
the northeastern portion of the State. This is the largest member of 
the Deer family. The Black Bear and the Beaver are now found only 
in the timbered districts of the northern half of the State. The Gray 
Wolf or Timber Wolf is now found only in the extreme north and north- 
eastern portions of the State. The Prairie Wolf is widely distributed 
over the State. The Badger and Raccoon inhabit all the State except 
the northeastern portion. The range of the Mink is State wide. The 
Porcupine's range is only in the north. The Red Foxes (Prairie and 
Eastern) occur in the prairie and forested regions respectively. 

Game Birds. Of game birds in Minnesota there are 25 kinds of ducks, 
17 of which breed within the State. Four species of geese are found, 
and one species of swan. 

Nine species of river or surface-feeding ducks are of regular occur- 
rence in Minnesota. These are the Mallard, Black Duck (called Black 
or Dusky Mallard) Gadwall or Gray Duck, Baldpate or Widgeon, Green- 
winged Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Shoveler or Spoonbill, Pintail, and Wood 
Duck. All except the Baldpate breed in the State. They are all valu- 
able as food, as objects of legitimate sport, and as destroyers of noxious 
weeds and insects. 

Foul' s])ecies of diviiis' oi' sea ducks are of s[)ecial importance as 
game birds. These are the Canvas-back, the Redhead, tlie Lesser Scaup 
or Blue-bill, and the Rinu-n^'cked Duck. These fonr species of ducks 
formerly bred in large mnnbers in all snitabie places throughout the 



OUT DOORS IN MINNESOTA 



255 



State. All still breed here though in greatly reduced uuuibers, and 
it is probable that the Canvas-back has about reached extinction as a 
summer resident. 

Four species of wild geese are found in Minnesota : the Snow Goose, 
called also the White Brant or White Wavie, the Blue Goose or Blue 
Wavie, the White-fronted Goose (sometimes called Brant), and the 
Canada Goose or Honker. All the geese are now spring and fall 
migrants, except, perhaps, an occasional pair of Canada geese Avhich 
may remain to breed in some remote part of the State, a lonely reminder 
of the time when they were common summer residents throughout the 
whole of this region. Although but a remnant of the former vast flocks. 




'10. 141. Wolf Lodge. Lake Home of Mr. & :\[is. I). F. DeWolf. Lake Minnetonka. The 

Hills are Morainic Mills. The Boulders are from Far North in Canada. Many 

(Jame Birds Nest in the Region. 



geese still pass back and forth across Minnesota in considerable numbers, 
chiefly over the western half. The Canada geese, for the most part, flock 
by themselves, but the three other species commonly mingle in migration. 
There is now only one kind of swan found in Minnesota, the Whistling 
Swan, which passes across the State in its migrations, and now and then 
alights to rest and feed. It breeds in Alaska and on the islands of the 
Arctic Ocean and winters on the sounds and bays of the South Atlantic 
and Gulf coasts. It was formerly very abundant and was killed in large 
numbers in the far north and elsewhere for the "swan's-down" as well 





-? 




Stoamer Passing? Aerial Rriclg'ei 
Concrete (Jrain Kkvabjis. 



OUT DOORS IN MINNESOTA 



257 



as for its flesh. Each spring and fall flocks of considerable size may still 
be seen on our larger lakes and on the Mississippi River. 

Four kinds of gulls and the same number of terns are found in Min- 
nesota. The Herring Gull, the largest, nests at Lake of the Woods, 
along the north shore of Lake Superior, and probably about other large 



m 



^'' 




Fig. 143. Canada Goose and Cackling Goose. Photograph hy Jenness Richardson. 




Fig. 144. Snow (ioose and Blue Goose. Photograph hy Jenitess Richardson. 

lakes in the northern part of the State. Franklin's Gull nests in immense 
colonies throughout the western prairie portion of the State. 

Of the four terns, three breed in the State, Forster's Tern chiefly 
in the prairie regions, the Common Tern chiefly northward, and the 



258 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




Fig. 145. Franklin Gull, Heron Lake, Minn. Photograph hy L. O. Dart. 




Fig. 146. Black Tern and Nest. Photograph bij Jcnncss RicJiardson. 



OUT DOORS IN MINNESOTA 



259 



Black Tern, which far exceeds in numbers all the others put together, 
breeds everywhere in sloughs and ponds. 

The gulls and terns are economically of great importance. The gulls 
are not only of special value as scavengers, particularly about harbors 
and along water-ways, but collectively they destroy an incalculable 
number of injurious insects. Franklin's Gull alone is of immense value 
to the farmers of the western part of the State. It is a common sight 
in that region to see great flocks of this bird following the plows and 
alighting in the freshly turned furrows to pick up the insects and 
worms brought to the surface. At other times they are constantly win- 




FiG. 147. Pied-billed Grebe — Nest open. Photograph hy Thos. S. Roberts. 

nowing back and forth over the prairies and meadows, or of evenings 
circling about in the air, devouring vast quantities of grasshoppers, 
beetles, moths, and other insects. The terns perform a similar service, 
the Black Tern especially, because of its great numbers being of great 
importance as a destroyer of insects. 

The family of Rails, Gallinules, and Coots is represented in Minne- 
sota by only a few species but in number of individuals it comprises 
by far the greater part of the aquatic bird life of the marshy lowlands 
of the State. Sloughs, ponds, and marshy lakes teem with members of 
this family in the fall. 



260 



TH1<: ISTORY OF THE NORTH i^TAR STATE 




Fig. 148. I'ied-billed Grebe — Nest covered. Photograph by Thos. S. Roberts. 




Fi<;. 14!>. Franklin (inlls Following the Plow.— ^Signilicant of Their Economic Value, June, 
1!H<;. PhotOf/raph by Jenness PicJiardxon. 



OUT DOORIS IN MINNEISOTA 



2G1 



In addition to the economic value of this family as insect destroyers, 
which is of considerable importance, the members of the family may all 
be regarded as game birds of some importance. The flesh of the Rails 
and of young Gallinules in the fall, when they have been feeding largely 
on wild rice and other vegetable food, is well flavored and suitable for 
the table. Since ducks have become scarcer many hunters have been 




Fig. 150. Spruce Grouse. 



turning their attention to Coots, calling them "Rice-hens" as a more 
appetizing name. When the food taken is largely wild celery, wild rice, 
and pond weeds these birds are, if properly cooked, of good flavor and 
nutritious, and much better than some ducks. What they have been 
eating and how they are prepared and handled in the cooking determines 
largely their desirability as food. 

Game and Food Fishes. It is stated on competent authority that 
an acre of inland water surface will furnish more food each year under 
proper "cultivation" than will the most fertile and productive acre of 
land. When the great potential food-producing wealth of Minnesota's 
water surface is reckoned, in addition to all the pleasure-wealth that these 
waters carry, it may indeed be said that Minnesota is most fortunate 
in her natural location. Few States have so many long rivers. Her 
ten thousand lakes make up what is among the most wonderful groups 



262 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 




Fig. 151. Channel Cat-Fish. Fiddler. Speckled Cat-Fish. Blue-Cat. 




Fig. 152. Common Buffalo-Fish. Hed-Mouthcd Buffalo. 




Fig. 153. Labrador Whiteflsh. 



OUT DOORS IN MINNESOTA 



263 



in the world. The rivers and lakes are the home of many valuable food 
and game fishes. 

Among the most widely distributed of the food fishes are Crappie, 
Pike, and Bass. These are caught in nearly all the waters of the State. 
The clear waters of many lakes and swift flowing streams are the fav- 
orite haunt of Bass. Crappies are commonly encountered in "schools" 




Fig. 154. Brown Trout. German Brown Trout. 



and it is good fisherman's luck when a school is met with. Pike are 
found in most of the lakes and streams particularly in the northern 
two-thirds of the State. The Pike is a gamey fish and responsible for 
many a thrill. 

Brook Trout were originally caught in the waters of small, swiftly 
flowing streams entering Lake Superior, and in the streams in the deep 




Fig. 155. Trout Perch. 



rocky valleys in the southeastern part of the State. This valuable and 
gamey fish has been successfully introduced into many other streams in 
the northern part of the State. It formerly abounded in the streams 
of the southern districts but the advance of civilization has in consider- 
able measure driven it out. The Brown Trout has been found to 
thrive where the Brook Trout has disappeared. The Brown Trout is 



264 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



highly regarded as a sportsman's fish but is not as delicate in flavor 
as a food fish. 




Fig. 15G. \Yhite Bass. Striped Bass. 



The Perches, Black-headed Minnow, Bull-head, Channel Cat Fish, 
Lake Eed Horse, Labrador White Fish, Lake Trout, Blue-gill, and Lake 
Carp are among the many valuable food fishes Avhich are widely dis- 
tributed. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 

CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY 

MAIN LINE (WEST) 
St. Paul.— miles; Alt. 704 feet. (Ramsey County.) 

Leaving Union Depot the railroad skirts the east bank of the Missis- 
sippi River (actually on the west side). St. Peter sandstone is exposed 
in the bluffs, on both sides of the river. By a heavy grade the limestone 
terrace, which extends to the bend of the river at Fort Snelling, is 
reached. The flat terrace has the Platteville limestone for a floor, and 
its surface is about 100 feet above the river. The railroad crosses this 
broad terrace, taking advantage of an old partially filled valley to rise 
to the upland east of Merriam Park. A moraine of red drift is crossed 
east of Merriam Park, with an intervening flat plain of red outwash. 
West of Merriam Park the deep gorge of the Mississippi is crossed on 
a high steel bridge. Bordering the gorge on either side is a high terrace 
of glacial gravel and sand. 

Minneapolis. — 11 miles; Alt. 825 feet. (Hennepin County.) 

The depot in Minneapolis is on the glacial terrace. The line west 
is across a flat outwash plain. West of Lake of the Isles and Lake 
Calhoun gray drift hills with intervening flat gray outwash plain to 
Hopkins. 

St. Louis Park.— 19 miles; Alt. 917 feet. 

St. Louis Park is on an outwash plain lying west of Lake Calhoun. 

Hopkins.— 22 miles; Alt. 920 feet. Chanhassen.— 29 miles; Alt. 955 
feet. Augusta. — 38 miles; Alt. 970 feet. Cologne.— 43 miles; Alt. 947 
feet. 

Terminal moraine. Morainic lakes and sloughs, knobs, pots and 
kettles. 

Norwood.— 50 miles; Alt. 990 feet. Plato.— 56 miles; Alt. 995 feet. 
(Crossing M. & St. L. Ry.) Glencoe.— 62 miles. (McLeod County.) 

Rolling till-plain, clayey in character, Cologne to Glencoe. Many 
lakes and sloughs in shallow depressions. 

Brownton.— 72 miles; Alt. 1,018 feet. 

Winding belt of terminal moraine west of Glencoe. 

Stewart.— 79 miles; Alt. 1,063 feet. Buffalo Lake.— 85 miles; Alt. 
1,073 feet. Hector.— 90 miles; Alt. 1,081 fVet. Bird Island.— 99 miles; 
Alt. 1,089 feet. Olivia.— 104 miles; Alt. 1,082 feet. (Renville County.) 

265 



266 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Danube.— i08 miles; Alt. 1,088 feet. Renville.— 115 miles; Alt. 1,067 
feet. 

From Stewart westward for 50 miles the landscape is that of an 
undulating till-plain or ground moraine. A tiny moraine 3 miles in 
length and one-fourth mile wide lies south of Danube. Small moraines 
one-half mile to 1 mile in width lie north of Bird Island, Olivia, and 
Danube 2 to 3 miles. 

Sacred Heart.— 121 miles ; Alt. 1,063 feet. 

West of Sacred Heart about 4 miles, Hawk Creek is crossed, deeply 
cut into the till-plain. West of this creek is a moraine a mile wide. The 
lailroad then descends to the terrace plain of the Minnesota Valley 
(glacial Eiver Warren). 

Minnesota Falls.— 127 miles; Alt. 1,025 feet. Granite Falls.— 131 
miles; Alt. 935 feet. (Yellow Medicine County.) (Crossing G. N. Ry.) 

Outcrop of rough blocky granite rock as railroad descends into the 
valley of the Minnesota. This is the old Archaean granitic rock of the 
primitive continent here exposed by the cutting of the Minnesota Valley. 

Wegdahl.— 148 miles; Alt. 927 feet. Montevideo.— 144 miles; Alt. 
922 feet. (Chippewa County.) 

Granite rock embossments stand out strongly on bottom of Minne- 
sota Valley. The railroad climbs out of the valley of the Minnesota by 
the mouth of Chippewa Creek. Granite exposed in the valley sides 
shows that the River Warren, when it was carrying the waters from 
glacial Lake Agassiz, had eroded deeply into the granite rock. Glacial 
gravel filling occurs in the valley bottom in many places. 

Watson.— 150 miles; Alt. 949 feet. Milan.— 159 miles; Alt. 989 
feet. Appleton. — 167 miles; Alt. 1.001 feet. (Crossing Great Northern 
Railway.) 

Channels of glacial outwash lie in courses parallel with the Minne- 
sota Valley, with belts or ridges of rolling terminal moraine between 
them. These morainic ridges were islands in the River Warren. The 
Minnesota Valley w^as cut about 100 feet below the bordering till-plain. 
Appleton is at the northwest end of one of these long morainic islands 
on the level sandy outwash plain. 

CorrelL— 174 miles; Alt. 974 feet. Odessa.— 184 miles; Alt. 957 
feet. Ortonville.— 189 miles; Alt. 985 feet. (Big Stone County.) 

The railroad follows the valley of the Minnesota from Appleton 
to Ortonville. The sandy and gravelly outwash plain of the glacial 
Minnesota River (River Warren) is 50 to 75 feet above the bottom of 
the Minnesota Valley. Odessa stands on an island of outwash. Marsh 
Lake, south of Correll, is caused by the silting up of the valley so as 
to pond the waters of the river. At Ortonville granite rocks are ex- 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 267 

posed in the valley. Many polished surfaces, known as roche moutonnee, 
or sheep's back, can be seen from the passing train. A fine view of Big 
Stone Lake, northwest of the city of Ortonville. North of Odessa a 
terminal moraine is seen, bordered by the broad outwash plain of sand 
and gravel. 

MAIN LINE (EAST), ST. PAUL TO LaCROSSE 

Newport. — 8 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 750 feet. 

Leaving Union Depot, St. Paul, the railroad skirts the steep bluffs 
on the east side of the river. White St. Peter sandstone is exposed 
below w4th Trenton limestone strata projecting above. . Toward New- 
port the drift covered bluffs are skirted, and a broad, flat terrace pf 
Shakopee limestone is crossed. 

Langdon. — 13 miles; Alt. 812 feet. 

Broad outwash plain of sand and gravel. The railroad runs along 
an abandoned river channel cut in this old sand plain. Shakopee lime- 
stone outcrops near the river opposite Hastings. 

Hastings.— 19 miles; Alt. 707 feet. (Dakota County.) 

An island of Shakopee limestone is surrounded by glacial outwash. 
Hastings stands on the limestone. Numerous lagoons or river-lakes 
occur in depressions in the glacial sand and gravel which form the 
valley floor. 

Etter.— 28 miles; Alt. 690 feet. Eggleston.— 32 miles; Alt. 692 feet. 

From Etter to Red Wing the railroad runs along the west side of 
the broad plain of glacial sand and gravel close to the overhanging 
limestone bluffs, which rise 300 to 400 feet above the river. Cannon 
River is crossed above Red Wing. The filling of glacial sand and gravel 
extends up this valley, continuous with that of the main valley. 

Red Wing.r-40 miles; Alt. 686 feet. (Goodhue County.) Wa- 
couta. — 46 miles ; Alt. 710 feet. Frontenac— 57 miles ; Alt. 720 feet. 

The Mississippi River below Red Wing is expanded into Lake Pepin, 
the valley being filled by in-carried sediments so as to dam the river. 
In and east of Red Wing are lowlands that were filled with glacial sand 
^nd gravel. These are generally open both up and down the valley. 
The railroad east of Red Wing runs west of rocky hills that were islands 
when the glacial river deposited the gravel filling. For some distance 
the railroad follows an abandoned channel below Red Wing. 

Frontenac stands on the east end of an "island" in the gravel filling. 
Well-defined terraces are east and west of Frontenac, also west of 
Wacouta. 

Lake City. — 57 miles; Alt. 713 feet. King's Cooley. — 63 miles; Alt. 
685 feet. Read's Landing. — 68 miles; Alt. 683 feet. 



2&8 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Terraces border the valley at Lake City. The liuiestone blult's rise 
450 feet above the river. A fine view of Lake Pepin is obtained east 
of Lake City. 

Wabasha. — 70 miles; Alt." 709 feet. (Wabasha County.) 

Opposite Wabasha are many sandy and gravelly islands in the river. 
These are part of the filling which is the cause of Lake Pepin. The 
Chippewa River in Wisconsin brings a large amount of debris from the 
sandy formations of its drainage area. When the current enters the 
broad valley of the Mississippi its speed is lessened and sediment is 
thrown down in greater quantity than the Mississippi can carry away. 
The Mississippi Valley has thus been filled across till a dam has. been 
formed which holds back the water, and thus Lake Pepin is formed. 

The loess-capped bluffs, which rise 450 feet above the river, here 
crowd close upon the river. Limestone ledges outcrop in the steep cliffs. 

Kellogg.— 76 miles; Alt. 701 feet. 

Kellogg is located at the mouth of the valley of the Zumbro. Glacial 
drainage deposits of sand and gravel form a filling in this valley similar 
to those of the Mississippi Valley. Terraces appear at different levels. 
The highest terrace is 65 feet above the railroad, and 108 feet above 
Lake Pepin. The Zumbro is blocked by the filling in the Mississippi 
Valley so that it meanders widely before being able to reach the Missis- 
sippi. 

Weaver.— 83 miles; Alt. 673 feet. Minneiska.— 86 miles; Alt. 670 
feet. 

The railroad runs near the foot of the limestone bluffs, crossing the 
mouth of the Whitewater River at Weaver. Terraces appear where the 
Whitewater Valley comes into the valley of the Mississippi. At Min- 
neiska the river runs near the foot of the bluffs, and the railroad follows 
the narrow plain of glacial filling. The height of the terraces indicates 
the amount of clearing out of the valley that was accomplished when 
the glacial flood waters from the melting ice sheets to the north surged 
down this great valley. The bottom of the valley is as far below the 
present floodplain as the present floodplain is now below the highest 
floodplain marked by the highest terrace. 

Minnesota City.— 97 miles; Alt. 678 feet. Winona.— 103 miles; Alt. 
678 feet. (Winona County.) 

The Mississippi Valley has been filled with glacial sand and gravel 
to'a level more than 100 feet above the present river, and the tributary 
valleys were correspondingly filled. The glacial river which carried 
the waters of Lake Agassiz removed much of this filling in the main 
valley, but much of the glacial deposit still remains in the tributary 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 26:j 

valleys. The liiglier uplands overlooking the valley are 600 feet above 
the river, and the distance across the flat valley plain is from 3 to 6 miles. 

Homer.— 107 miles; Alt. 662 feet. LaMoille.— 112 miles; Alt. 659 
feet. Richmond.— 117 miles; Alt. 660 feet. Dakota.— 120 miles; Alt. 
658 feet. Dresbach.— 122 miles ; Alt. 675 feet. North LaCrosse, Wis.— 
132 miles ; Alt. 651 feet. 

The railroad runs on the glacial filling of sand and gravel close to 
the foot of the bluffs to Bridge Switch. Broad valleys silted up with 
sand and gravel enter the large valley, separated by high bluffs which 
rise to more than 1,200 feet above sea level, and more than 600 feet 
above the Mississippi. Gwinn's Bluff, below Richmond, is a conspicuous 
and precipitous highland capped by the St. Lawrence limestone, with 
St. Croix sandstone below. 

ST. PAUL-AUSTIN-CALMAR LINE 
Mendota.— 6 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 743 feet. 

Leaving Union Depot the railroad crosses the Mississippi, skirting 
the steep bluffs in which the St. Peter sandstone is exposed below and 
the Trenton limestone above. The historic Sibley House, home of Gen- 
eral H. H. Sibley, is near Mendota, constructed from limestone quarried 
from the cliffs. Mendota stands on the valley bottom of the Minnesota 
south of Pike Island, an island of St. Peter sandstone which lies below 
the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. 

Prom Minneapolis a line to Mendota runs across a broad gravelly 
terrace of the glacial Mississippi to Minnehaha Palls. Here Minnehaha 
Creek is crossed, and the railroad soon descends across the outcropping 
Platteville limestone to the St. Peter sandstone. Fort Snelling is on 
the high gravel terrace. The railroad follows the side of the gorge to 
the point where the Mississippi and the Minnesota join, at the head of 
Pike Island, then across the broad valley of the Minnesota to Mendota. 

South of Mendota the railroad leaves the Minnesota Valley follow- 
ing the old preglacial valley of the Mississippi. (See Chapters XV & 
XVI.) Augusta and Lemay Lakes are passed, occupying depressions in 
the old filled valley. 

Westcott.— 14 miles; Alt. 882 feet. 

Westcott lies in the old Mississippi Valley, which from here south- 
east to the bend of the river is marked by glacial river-washed sand 
and gravel. The plain which is crossed south of Westcott is that of 
the roughly rolling morainic hills of Young Red drift. 

Rosemount. — 19 miles; Alt. 963 feet. 

Rosemount stands on the edge of a broad sandy outwash plain whicli 
extends to and beyond Hastings. 



270 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Farmiiigton. — 26 miles; Alt. 908 feet. 

Farmington is on the sandy outwash ])lain referred to. Between 
Rosemount and Farmington a mesa-like upland stands nearly 200 feet 
above the surrounding sandy outwash plain. A capping of limestone 
over J:he soft sandstone protects the sandstone from erosion. Over the 
top of the mesa and surrounding it the surface formation is that of the 
Old Gray drift (Kansan). A loess-covered area lies west of the railroad 
north of Farmington. 

Castle Rock. — 33 miles; Alt. 945 feet. 

The plain of the Old Gray drift extends 2 miles west and 4 miles 
north. Between Farmington and Castle Rock a low mesa is crossed. 
Its eastern and higher part is capped with limestone. South the gravel- 
filled valley of Chub Creek is crossed. (See Chap. XXV.) 

Northfield.— 40 miles ; Alt. 915 feet. 

The boundary between the Old Gray drift (Kansan) and the Young 
Gray drift (Wisconsin) is a mile east of Northfield. The rapids of 
Cannon River were caused by the change in the direction of flow of 
this valley's river and forcing the waters to cross an old divide. (See 
Chap. XXV.) The St. Peter sandstone outcrops in the valley sides, 
overlaid by the Trenton limestone. 

Dundas.— 43 miles; Alt. 958 feet. Faribault.~52 miles; Alt. 1,003 
feet. (Rice County.) 

The railroad follows the valley of Cannon River to Faribault. St. 
Peter sandstone with overlying Trenton limestone continues in the valley 
sides. On the west rolling morainic hills of Young Gray drift crowd 
upon the valley. Cannon River is crossed at Faribault. 

Medford.— 62 miles; Alt. 1,101 feet. 

Rolling till-plain Faribault to Medford. Valley of Straight River is 
followed to Owatonna. 

Owatonna., — 67 miles; Alt. 1,145 feet. (Steele County.) (Crossing 
C, R. I. & P. Ry. and C. & N. W. Ry.) 

Owatonna is built on a gently rolling moraine. The surrounding 
country is undulating till-plain, a high quality farming country. 

Pratt.— 73 miles. Bixby.— 80 miles; Alt. 1,300 feet. 

Pratt is on gently undulating till-plain. A moraine can be seen 
2 miles east and another 3 miles west. These two moraines join north 
of Bixby. South from Bixby is a sandy channel by which Straight River 
probably at one time flowed south to the Cedar. 

Blooming Prairie. — 85 miles; Alt. 1,290 feet. 

The boundary line between the Young Gray drift and the Old Gray 
drift is about a mile west of Bixby. A sandy outwash plain extends 
doAvn the valley of the Cedar past Lansing and Ramsey to Austin. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 271 

Austin.— 100 miles ; Alt. 1,195 feet. (Mower County.) 

A gently rolling low moraine lies west of Austin. This was formed 
at the edge of the Keewatin glacier (Wisconsin stage) and marks the 
eastern limit of the Young Gray drift. The gently undulating broad 
expanse of the Old Gray drift extends away to the east. The sandy out- 
wash deposit continues down the valley of the Cedar to the State line 
and beyond. This was a channel of drainage from the melting Keewatin 
ice sheet. 

Rose Creek. — 108 miles; Alt. 1,285 feet. Adams. — ^114 miles; Alt. 
1,286 feet. Taopi.— 118 miles; Alt. 1,241 feet. (Crossing C. G. "W. Ry.) 
LeRoy.— 126 miles; Alt. 1,285 feet. (Crossing C. G. W. Ry.) 

Flat or gently undulating plain of Old Gray drift. 

LaCROSSE-AUSTIN-PIPESTONE LINE 

LaCrescent. — 4 miles from LaCrosse ; Alt. 647 feet. 

The town stands on a fine gravelly terrace Avhich is 50 feet above 
the floodplain of the Mississippi. This terrace is related to the gravel 
terraces deposited by glacial waters that border the Mississippi Valley. 
Another terrace 40 feet higher lies back of the town against the bluffs. 
This latter represents an early floodplain of Root River. 

Hokah.— 9 miles ; Alt. 654 feet. 

The railroad follows the broad valley of Root River, which is about 
2 miles broad between the bordering bluffs. It is approximately 
this width across Houston County. The valley is in the St. Croix sand- 
stone and is about 500 feet deep. Some of its tributary valleys are 
equally deep and wide, but the smaller tributary valleys become shal- 
lower and more rocky as the gorges ascend into the St. Lawrence 
limestone. Hokah stands upon a terrace 65 feet above the floodplain 
of Root River. A well more than 60 feet in depth reached a bed 4 feet 
in thickness of vegetable matter, sticks, leaves, muck, and snail shells, 
showing that the terrace deposit was long ago filled into the valley as 
a floodplain deposit, and the deeper valley was later cut into this deposit. 
Mt. Tom, at Hokah, is a limestone-capped hill standing 530 feet above 
the floodplain. Building stone for the railroad shops was quarried 
from this hill. 

Mound Prairie. — 15 miles ; Alt. 665 feet. 

The name is suggestive of the local topography of the valley bot- 
tom. The broad valley is marked by mounds of sandstone which have 
resisted the erosion by which the valley has been formed. Sandstone 
bluffs of varying height border the valley sides. 

Bluffs in the tributary valleys south are beautifully sculptured, and 
isolated columns and tables, with some rounded buttresses, which afford 



272 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

fine examples of wind erosion, occur. The bliiflt's themselves are the 
result of water erosion that began long ages ago in preglacial time, 
but the present sculptured character and the peculiar forms are due to 
wind erosion in conjunction with the work of moisture and frost. 

Houston.— 22 miles ; Alt. 684 feet. 

The bluffs north of Houston are 520 feet above the w^ater of Root 
River. West of the city a terrace 65 feet above the bottom of the valley 
shows the level of an ancient floodplain. 

Money Creek.— 26 miles ; Alt. 704 feet. 

Money Creek comes into the Root from the north between Houston 
and Money Creek station by a broad valley similar to the Root Valley 
itself. Terraces border the valley, being 30 feet above the flood-plain. 

Rushford.— 33 miles; Alt. 727 feet. Peterson.— 37 miles; Alt. 763 
feet. 

Continuing up the valley of Root River, sandstone bluffs capped 
with limestone border the broad valley. 

"The larger streams have gorges of enormous depth into the rocky 
floors on which they run, but every little creek and tributary runs in 
a gorge which shows the same rock-sculpture. Even the freshet creeks, 
and the rivulets born of every summer shower, dry entirely the greater 
part of the year, find their way to the main valleys through rock-bound 
canyon-like valleys." — (Upham.) 

The valley is here about 2 miles in width, with fine farms on the 
bottom lands. The bluffs are rounded off with age, and mostly have a 
covering of soil, though there are frequent rock exposures. The river 
is 565 feet below the tops of the bluffs. The floor of the valley is on 
St. Croix sandstone, and this formation extends into the bluffs, with 
St. Lawrence limestone above. The valley floor is entirely alluvial, com- 
pletely burying the sandstone. Rushford stands upon a terrace 40 feet 
above the river. 

Whalan.— 46 miles; Alt. 791 feet. 

At Whalan the St. Lawrence limestone is finely exposed in the bluff' 
half a mile below the town. This bluff is 250 feet high. The river is 
470 feet below the top of the Trenton limestone. 

Lanesboro. — 51 miles; Alt. 846 feet. 

The river is 285 feet below the immediate l)luff's, and 440 feet below 
the top of the Trenton limestone, which is the highest formation capping 
the bluffs. Fine farms are on the bluffs, and the upland prairie is a 
fine farming country. The valleys are deep and wide. Owing to the 
thickness of the loess-loam the slopes are softened and brojid. 

Tsinours. — 63 miles: Alt. 904 feet. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 'IT6 

Battlements of Shakopee limestone enclose the valley, rising about 
31 feet above the water of Root River. 

Fountain. — 62 miles from LaCrosse; Alt. 1,306 feet. Wykoff. — 69 
miles ; Alt. 1,318 feet. 

The railroad rises 400 feet in the distance of less than 6 miles from 
Isinours to Fountain. Fountain is on the high plain of the Galena mem- 
ber of the Trenton limestone, which is here mostly covered with loess 
and a little of the oldest drift. The western limit of the loess is about 
3 miles west of Wykoff. The railroad runs along the high ridge over 
Trenton and Maquoketa limestones, in which there are many natural 
sink-holes, marked usually by a bunch of trees or bushes. One or two 
miles north the surface is cut by small streams which descend througli 
canyon-like valleys to Root River. 

Spring Valley. — 77 miles; Alt. 1,271 feet. (Crossing C. G. W. Ry.) 

About 5 miles east the old Kansan drift is encountered. This is 
its eastern edge, and the transition to the loess-covered plain is not 
sharply marked. The country is broadly undulating, though trenched 
by Spring Valley Creek, and by Deer and Bear Creeks to the north. 
The quarries at Spring Valley mark the east edge of a Devonian lime- 
stone. 

Grand Meadow. — 86 miles ; Alt. 1,344 feet. Dexter. — 92 miles ; Alt. 
1,416 feet. Revona.— 98 miles ; Alt. at Crossing C. G. W. Ry. 1,379 feet. 
Brownsdale.— 101 miles; Alt. 1,275 feet. 

Gently undulating prairie. Kansan drift over Devonian limestone. 
Imperceptible divide between Mississippi drainage and that to the Cedar. 

Ramsey.— 106 miles.; Alt. 1,218 feet. 

At Ramsey the landscape changes markedly. To the east is the un- 
dulating prairie of the Old Gray (Kansan) drift; to the west is the roll- 
ing topography of the younger (Wisconsin) drift belonging to the Kee- 
watin glacier. (See Chap. IV.) To the east the land is well drained 
and there are no lakes; to the west drainage is but feebly developed 
and lakes are everywhere. The Cedar River marks the boundary of the 
younger drift and the limit of the eastern advance of the Keewatin 
glacier in this region. The valley of the Cedar is that of an outwash 
channel by which water from the melting Keewatin glacier escaped 
southward. 

Oakland.— 118 miles; Alt. 1,369 feet. Hayward.— 127 miles; Alt. 
1,254 feet. 

Four narrow morainic belts are passed between Ramsey and Albert 
Lea, the topography being distinctly rolling, and many lakes and un- 
drained areas occupying the depressions. Between the moraines are 



274 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

belts of rolling ground moraine or till-plain such as are characteristic of 
the Young Gray drift. 

Albert Lea. — 133 miles; Alt. 1,225 feet. (Freeborn County.) 

East arm Albert Lea Lakes is crossed 4 miles east, then moraine, 
and narrows connecting Albert Lea Lakes, to depot. Depot on cla}- 
lake bottom of glacial Lake Albert Lea. West of city the railroad runs 
on the ancient lake bottom, then crosses gravelly outwash plain west. 
(See Chap. XXII.) 

Alden.— 144 miles; Alt. 1,266 feet. Wells.— 153 miles; Alt. 1,162 
feet. Easton.— 162 miles ; Alt. 1,060 feet. Delavan.— 168 miles ; Alt. 1,071 
feet. 

Two large moraines crossed between Albert Lea and Alden. Two 
small moraines south of Freeborn Lake, between Alden and Wells. Mo- 
rain south between Easton and Delavan. Headwaters Maple River 
north. 

Winnebago.— 175 miles; Alt. 1,111 feet. (Crossing C, St. P., M. & 
0. Ry.) Huntley.— 180 miles; Alt. 1,103 feet. Grenada.— 186 miles; 
Alt. 1,133 feet. 

The Blue Earth River is crossed west of Winnebago. The general 
surface is flat. The river is nearly 100 feet below the general prairie 
level, meandering over a flat floodplain one-fourth to one-half mile in 
width. This broad valley with its steep sides was eroded by glacial 
waters. A moraine is crossed between Huntley and Granada, and another 
at Fairmont. 

Fairmont.— 192 miles; Alt. 1,195 feet. (Martin County.) 

Flat or gently undulating till-plain north. Moraine south. Middle 
chain of lakes west of city. (See Chap. XXIII.) 

Welcome.— 200 miles; Alt. 1,143 feet. (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) 

Railroad skirts a moraine on the south. Moraine also west; Fox 
Lake north, draining to Blue Earth River. 

Sherburn.— 206 miles; Alt. 1,295 feet. (Crossing M. & St. L. Ry.) 

Railroad passes between Temperance and Manger L^kes east. Gently 
undulating till-plain. Moraine between Sherburn and Alpha, bordered 
on west side by glacial channel of East Fork of Des Moines River. 

Jackson. — 218 miles; Alt. 1,485 feet. (Jackson County.) 

Jackson is located in the deep glacial valley of the Des Moines 
River. This glacial channel is bordered on either side by a moraine, 
that on the west side being ten miles in width, extending to Lakefield. 
The city is built on gravelly terraces of glacial outwash. 

Okabena.— 238 miles; Alt. 1,433 feet. Miloma.— 241 miles. (Cross- 
ing C, St. P., M. & O. Ry.) 

Undulating till-plain from Lakefield west. Heron L^ike north. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 275 

Kinbrae.— 246 miles; Alt. 1,471 feet. Fulda.— 255 miles; Alt. 1,532 
feet. lona. — 265 miles ; Alt. 1,629 feet. 

Gently rolling prairie (till-plain or ground moraine). Clear Lake 
north of Kinbrae, Graham Lakes and Eagle Lake south. Seven Mile 
Lakes south of Fulda. West of lona to Chandler, to the north, a moraine 
sandy in character. Clayey moraines south of Zona and Chandler. 

Chandler.— 274 miles ; Alt. 1,654 feet. 

Northwest and northeast from Chandler are sandy moraines, and 
to the south a clayey moraine. This the outermost moraine, called the 
Altamont. Buffalo Ridge, 4 miles northwest of Chandler, rises 150 feet 
above the surrounding plain. 

Edgerton.— 284 miles ; Alt. 1,574 feet. 

At Chandler the railroad enters the valley of Chanerambie Creek, 
a glacial outwash channel which was cut by the glacial waters from 
the great ice sheet at the time the great Altamont moraine was being 
formed. This channel is cut into the drift to a depth of about 75 feet. 
At Edgerton the railroad turns abruptly and ascends the valley of Rock 
River, also a deeply eroded glacial channel. 

Hatfield.— 291 miles: Alt. 1,685 feet. 

Four miles north of Edgerton the railroad leaves the deep valley of 
Rock River and crosses the undulating till-plain to Pipestone. 

Pipestone.— 298 miles; Alt. 1,732 ft. (Pipestone County.) 

The country surrounding Pipestone is nearly flat till-plain border- 
ing the Altamont moraine on the west. The deposit of drift is very 
thin, and at Pipestone hard quartzite rock overlaid with soil is the sur- 
face formation. The boundary between the Keewatin gray drift and 
the old Kansan gray drift is immediately west of the city. Split Rock 
Creek heads south of Pipestone, and becomes a rock-bound gorge in 
the Sioux quartzite 10 miles south. 

Airlie.— 304 miles; Alt. 1,664 feet. 

Airlie is on the plain of the Kansan or Old Gray drift. This forma- 
tion was last noted on this line of road 200 miles east, at Ramsay in 
western Mower County. The journey from Ramsay to Pipestone has 
been on the deposits of the Keewatin (Wisconsin) ice sheet. 

Between Pipestone and Airlie the deeply eroded glacial outwash 
channel of Pipestone Creek is crossed. 

RENO-ISINOURS LINE 

LaCreseent. — 4 miles from LaCrosse ; Alt. 637 feet. Brownsville. — 
14 miles from LaCrosse ; Alt. 639 feet. Reno.— 21 miles ; Alt. 636 feet. 



276 THE STORY OF THE NORTH i^TAR STATE 

Towns on the plain of the glacial bottom of the Mississippi Valley. 
The Old Mississippi Valley had been filled for fully 100 feet with sand 
and gravel, and then was scoured out for about 75 feet by the waters 
that came from glacial Lake Agassiz. It has since been filled again with 
sand and silt about 25 feet. Reno is 16 feet above the river on a terrace, 
the modern channel of the river being in the modern alluvial floodplain. 
The bluffs here rise 500 feet above the ancient floodplain of the glacial 
Mississippi River. The railroad ascends Crooked Creek, traversing a 
gravelly terrace or ancient floodplain, which continues from the Missis- 
sippi Valley up the tributary valleys. The glacial floodplain of the main 
valley continues up the tributary valleys because of the fact that the 
glacial streams entering the Mississippi were backed up and deposited 
their burdens of sand and gravel. Loess from the uplands has also 
been washed down and spread upon the valley bottoms and mixed with 
the sand and gravel. 

The walls of the valley rise steep on either side. The formations 
here exposed are the Oneota dolomite (limestone) over the Jordan sand- 
stone. The limestone is harder and the rock strata project out as hard 
shelves, because the soft friable sandstone crumbles out from under the 
harder limestone leaving projecting cliffs. Huge blocks of hard dolomite 
or limestone lie on the sides and bottoms of the valley, rolling down the 
slopes as they break off from the ledges outcropping above. 

Caledonia. — 14 miles from Reno; Alt. 1,177 feet. (Houston County.) 

Do not get mad if the train does not make rapid time approaching 
Caledonia. The grade is heavy. A climb of 300 feet is being made 
from the terrace plain up to the undulating prairie at Caledonia. Cale- 
donia is on the upland plain of the Oneota-Shakopee limestone forma- 
tions. Loess covers the surface and softens the topography. East of 
Caledonia quarries in the limestone are operated. 

Spring Grove.— 24 miles; Alt. 1,322 feet. 

Prom Caledonia to Spring Grove the railroad Avinds amongst hilly 
crags of Trenton limestone, following a ridge on the high prairie whicii 
here is not much loess-covered. The railroad is here more than 600 
feet higher than the valley bottom of Crooked Creek 6 miles east of 
Caledonia. 

This ridge is formed of the Trenton limestone (Platteville and 
Galena), which overlies the St. Peter sandstone. The ridge is a long 
"island" of hard limestone which has been cut into and eroded by 
streams but has not been carried away. The irregular character of the 
landscape is due to the hard quality of the limestone. The hard lime- 
stone caps and protects the underlying soft sandstone. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 277 

Mabel.— 33 miles; Alt. 1,115 feet. 

Three miles west of Spring Grove the railroad leaves the Trenton 
limestone and passes onto the St. Peter sandstone, and about a mile 
east of Mabel passes onto the still lower Shakopee limestone. Mabel is 
on the edge of the St. Peter sandstone. The railroad descends 200 feet 
from the Trenton limestone ridge west of Spring Grove to the Shakopee 
limestone east of Mabel. Mabel is near the head of Riceford Creek, 
which flows into Root River on a flat plain of erosion. This valley has 
been cut deep into the Shakopee limestone. Loess covers the uplands 
on either side of the valley. 

Canton. — 42 miles; Alt. 1,334 feet. Harmony. — 47 miles; Alt. 
1,336 feet. 

From Mabel to Canton and Harmony the railroad follows the high 
prairie, which is here covered with a mantle of loess. Trenton lime- 
stone underlies the loess covering most of the way to Harmony. The 
stream courses to the north have been eroded through the Trenton 
limestones into the St. Peter sandstone, and farther north into the 
Shakopee and Oneota. East of Harmony a remnant of the Kansan drift 
is crossed. This represents one of the easternmost points of the drift 
sheet in this part of Minnesota. This is a remnant that remains upon 
the ridge while that over the valleys has been carried away by erosion. 

Preston.— 57 miles; Alt. 925 feet. (Fillmore County.) 

Preston is 350 feet lower than the high prairie east of Harmony, 
The railroad dsecends the gorge-like valleys of Danbury and Camp 
Creeks. Root River valley has been eroded into the Oneota dolomite 
(limestone). The Trenton limestones and the St. Peter sandstone both 
extended over this region but have been carried away by erosion. The 
valley bottom all the way down to the Mississippi is terraced to that of 
a glacial floodplain. The sand, gravel, and mud of the valley came from 
the erosion of the valley and its tributaries together with glacial material 
from the Kansan drift sheet to the west. " The river at the stone mill 
is 335 feet below the flat surface of the Trenton limestones which forms 
the general prairie surface above the valley to the south. The water- 
power at this mill is formed by the descent of the river from the Oneota 
limestone to the Jordan sandstone. This sandstone is well exposed 
opposite the mill, where it rises 25 feet above the level of the river. 
Above this the Oneota limestone is exposed for about 35 feet. 

WABASHA-ZUMBROTA-FARIBAULT LINE 

Dumfries. — 12 miles from Wabasha. McCracken. — 17 miles; Alt. 
728 feet. Thielman.— 19 miles ; Alt. 737 feet. Keegan.— 24 miles ; Alt. 
753 feet. Millville.— 28 miles; Alt. 779 feet. Jarrett— 30 miles ; Alt. 786 



278 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

feet. Hammond. — 33 miles; Alt. 800 feet. Zumbro Falls. — 41 miles; 
Alt. 836 feet. 

The railroad ascends the Zumbro Valley following its winding 
course. The valley is terraced along its course, the terraces representing 
ancient floodplains formed during successive stages of the river's work 
in removing the drift sands and gravels carried down from the melting 
ice sheets. The terraces are, in part, composed also of materials derived 
from the erosion of the rocks in which the valley has been excavated. 
Definite glacial filling occurs as far up as the mouth of South Branch, 
which enters the main stream west of Zumbro Falls. From Kellogg to 
Thielman the valley is 2 miles in width and more than a mile most of 
the way to Millville, and lies about 400 feet below the upland plateaus 
both north and south of the valley. The lower valley is terraced by 
successive remnants of ancient floodplains at higher and higher levels 
above the river. Millville stands on a terrace 30 feet above the depot 
and 48 feet above the river. From the mouth of the valley up to 
Zumbro Falls the valley has been cut down into the St. Croix sand- 
stone, the higher bluffs being capped by Shakopee limestone. Two 
mounds of St. Peter sandstone rise 70 feet above the surrounding plain 
about a mile south of the railroad and river between Jarrett and Ham- 
mond. The Shakopee limestone forms the valley sides and upland plain 
above Jarrett. The surface of the upland is covered with a deposit of 
loess. 

Mazeppa. — 51 miles; Alt. 929 feet. Forest Mills. — 57 miles; Alt. 
969 feet ; Zumbrota. — 59 miles ; Alt. 974 feet. Wanamingo. — 66 miles. 
Kenyon.— 76 miles; Alt. 1,159 feet. (Crossing C. G. W. Ey.) 

From Mazeppa across Goodhue County the valley is cut into 
Shakopee limestone, Zumbrota stands in the valley at the edge of a 
plain of Old Gray drift. Two gravelly hills of glacial deposit, known 
as kames, lie to the south. Another such kame-hill lies south of Wana- 
mingo. The railroad west of Zumbrota runs on the Old Gray drift plain 
to Kenyon. 

Epsom.— 80 miles; Alt. 1,112 feet. Ruskin.— 80 miles; Alt. 1,139 
feet. Faribault.— 93 miles; Alt. 1,003 feet. (Rice County.) 

West of Kenyon the railroad again runs in the old glacial valley. 

Above Epsom glacial outwash sand and gravel form the valley floor. 

The eastern boundary of the Young Gray drift is crossed at Ruskin. 

Low-rolling morainic hills are crossed to Straight Valley and Faribault. 

NORTHFIELD-RED WING LINE 

Randolph. — 9 miles from Northfield ; Alt. 915 feet. Cannon Falls. — 
15 miles; Alt. 810 feet. Welch.— 25 miles; Alt. 715 feet. Red Wing.— 
36 miles; Alt. 685 feet. (Goodhue County.) 



GEOLOGY FROM A GAR WINDOW 279 

Gravelly flat outwash plain above Randolph to Cannon Falls and 
below. Two mesas of sandstone capped by limestone, one north of 
Cannon Eiver and the railroad, the other south, east of Randolph. 
Another similar mesa lies north of Cannon Falls. Chub Creek originally 
flowed north of these mesas and joined the Little Cannon east of Cannon 
Falls. (See Chap. XXV.) North of the valley between Cannon Falls 
and Welch a moraine of the Old Red drift caps the bluffs above the 
deep valley. (See Chap. IV.) The deep canyon-like valley from Cannon 
Falls to Red Wing was cut in preglacial time. (See Chap. XXV,) 
Limestones and sandstones outcrop in the steep sides of the canyon-like 
valley. The canyon bottom is glacial sand and gravels that have not 
been entirely removed by erosion since the ice sheet melted. 

HASTINGS-COLOGNE LINE 
Vermillion. — 8 miles from Hastings; Alt. 843 feet. Empire — 12 
miles; Alt. 859 feet. (Crossing C, G. W. Ry.) Farmington. — 17 miles; 
Alt. 903 feet. 

These towns all on the red drift outwash plain (Young Red drift). 
South one mile is the Old Red drift, of the Illinoisan glacier. 

Lakeville. — 5 miles from Farmington, or 22 miles from Hastings; 
Alt. 967 feet. (Crossing Dan Patch Line west.) 

Near western edge of outwash plain formed from the moraine of 
Young Red (Wisconsin) drift to the north, but town stands on Old Gray 
drift (Kansan). Lake north on boundary between Young Gray drift 
and Young Red drift. Loess area north of town. 

Prior Lake. — 33 miles from Hastings. 

Rolling morainic hills of the great moraine formed on the east side 
of the Keewatin glacier. Prior Lake crossed by railroad west. 

Shakopee.— 29 miles; Alt. 751 feet. (Scott County.) 

Railroad descends into the valley of the Minnesota, which is marked 
by high glacial terraces. Shakopee limestone outcrops in the valley 
sides. This is the original locality where this limestone was studied, and 
from which the name was given. 

Chaska. — 32 miles. (Carver County.) Carver. — 35 miles. 

These towns stand on gravel terrace across the river from Shakopee. 
The railroad ascends to the rolling till-plain and passes among the roll- 
ing hills of the great moraine which was crossed east of the river. The 
main line of the railroad is joined at Cologne. 



280 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

FARMINGTON-MANKATO-WELLS LINE 
Elko. — 36 miles from St. Paul. Lonsdale. — 45 miles; Alt. 1,094 feet. 
The red drift outwash plain extends about 2 miles west of the 
crossing of the Dan Patch .line. An "island" of Old Gray drift in the 
outwash plain lies north of the railroad crossing. Near the boundary 
of Dakota and Scott Counties is the eastern limit of Young Gray drift. 
Rolling morainic hills to Lonsdale and Montgomery. A fine group of 
morainic lakes is passed between these two places. 

Montgomery.— 53 miles; Alt. 1,060 feet. (Crossing M. & St. L. Ry.) 
Montgomery is at the western edge of the great moraine which was 
formed along the eastern side of the Keewatin glacier. 

LeSueur Center. — 62 miles. (LeSueur County.) Cleveland. — 68 
miles ; Alt. 1,046 feet. 

Gently undulating till-plain. Numerous small lakes. 

Kasota. — 78 miles; Alt. 877 feet. 

The Minnesota Valley is about 250 feet deep. Sandy and gravelly 
deposits of glacial outwash fill the valley in places 150 feet in depth. 
The River Warren, while it was carrying away the waters from Lake 
Agassiz, cleared out much of the gravel and sand, leaving terraces mark- 
ing earlier floodplain levels. Rock ledges are exposed in the valley sides 
50 to 75 feet above the river. 

Mankato. — 85 miles; Alt. 785 feet. (Blue Earth County.) 

From Kasota to Mankato the railroad runs on the gravel filling of 
the valley. South of Mankato the line climbs to the rolling till-plain, 
then crosses Maple River valley. Limestone ledges are exposed in the 
valley sides of the Minnesota and of the Maple. The till-plain is flat 
about Rapidan and south to Good Thunder. The soil is a fine quality 
of silt loam. The big valleys of the Blue Earth west and of the Maple 
east, can be seen from the train between Rapidan and Good Thunder. 

Good Thunder.— 99 miles; Alt. 979 feet. Mapleton.— 106 miles. 
Minnesota Lake.— 115 miles; Alt. 1,043 feet. Wells.— 123 miles; Alt. 
1,162 feet. 

Gently rolling till-plain, in places flat, with frequent lakes. Definite 
drainage lines have not become established by modei-n streams since 
the last invasion of the ice sheet. 

ST. CLAIR BRANCH 

Freeboi'u. — 13 miles from Albert Lea. 

Two large moraines are crossed between Albert Lea and Freeborn, 
with intervening gently rolling till-plain. Freeborn Lake south, and 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 281 

small lakes and sloughs west. This district is nominally drained by Cobb 
River, but is really not drained. It is a typical young landscape of the 
Keewatin drift sheet. 

Matawan. — 21 miles. Waldorf. — 28 miles. Pemberton. — 33 miles. 

Gently undulating till-plain or ground moraine. Splendid farming 
lands. The Keewatin drift is called a ''gray" drift because of the 
presence of limestone from the great limestone fields of Canada from 
which it came. There has been little leaching of the soil since the glacier 
disappeared, and the soil possesses great fertility. 

St. Clair.— 40 miles. 

Continuation of the till-plain. LeSueur River has eroded a chan- 
nel 50 feet in depth. There has been little erosion of the adjacent lands 
as few tributary streams have yet developed. 

HASTINGS-STILLWATER LINE 

Afton. — 14 miles from Hastings ; Alt. 693 feet. Lakeland. — 18 miles ; 
Alt. 725 feet. Stillwater.— 25 miles. (Washington County.) 

The St. Croix River joins the Mississippi opposite Hastings. From 
the junction of the two rivers up to Afton the surface formation is 
that of the Old Red drift. (See Chap. IV.) Lakeland and Stillwater 
are on terraces of the large glacial stream that one time carried the 
waters of Lake Duluth to the Mississippi, and cut the gorge at The 
Dalles. (See Chap. XVII.) 

HUTCHINSON LINE 
Hutchinson. — 14 miles from Glencoe ; Alt. 1,042 feet. 
Rolling till-plain Glencoe to Hutchinson. North of Hutchinson is 
the large moraine which extends in an irregular belt from St. Paul to 
Fergus Falls and beyond. A group of typical morainic lakes lies north 
of Hutchinson. These are distributed in the grandest confusion amongst 
the morainic knobs and tumbling hills. 

ORTONVILLE-FARGO BRANCH 

Clinton. — 13 miles. Graceville. — 21 miles; Alt. 1,111 feet. (Cross- 
ing Great Northern Railway.) 

Leaving the Minnesota Valley at Ortonville, and passing the south- 
eastern end of Big Stone Lake, rolling till-plain is crossed on which are 
many small lakes and ponds. 



282 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Collis.— 26 miles; Alt. 1,066 feet. 

Collis stands on the gravelly Herman Beach, the highest shore-line 
of Lake Agassiz, The surface of the lake plain slopes gently to the 
northward. The plain is lake-washed clayey till. 

Dumont.— 31 miles ; Alt. 1,043 feet. Wheaton.— 38 miles; Alt. 1,019 
feet. (Traverse County.) White Rock (South Dakota). — 47 miles; Alt. 
973 feet. 

Dumont is on the lake-washed plain. A mile north the Norcross 
Beach of Lake Agassiz is crossed, — a well-defined sandy and gravelly 
ridge. Wheaton is on the Tintah Beach, and Mustinka River is crossed 
immediately north. The plain is that of lake-washed clayey till. Lower 
Tintah Beaches are crossed to the north. White Rock, S. D., is across 
the Bois des Sioux River. Lake Traverse lies to the west, from which 
the Bois des Sioux flows north, being the upper portion of the Red River 
of the North. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 

CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY 

MANKATO-BLACK HILLS LINE 

Mankato.— 86 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 783 feet. (Blue Earth 
County.) (For Mankato-Winona Line see p 284.) (For Nicollet Line 
see p. 287.) 

The valley of the Minnesota is here broad and deep, and bordered 
by glacial terraces. 

Judson.— 96 miles; Alt. 809 feet. 

From Mankato west the railroad runs across a terrace of limestone 
to Judson, west of which are gravel terraces. Cambria stands on the 
gravel filling of the glacial terrace. 

New Ulm.— 112 miles; Alt. 842 feet. (Brown County.) 

The railroad follows the plain of glacial deposits in the valley. A 
bluff of pinkish red quartzite is exposed on the east side of the valley 
below New Ulm. This rock stood out as an island in the sea when the 
limestones that outcrop in the valley were deposited. (See Chap. XL) 
At New Ulm terraces of the glacial Minnesota River (River Warren) 
are well seen. The station is on a terrace above the river, the business 
part of the city is on a higher terrace, and the residence section is on a 
still higher terrace, and the cemetery stands on a fourth and the highest 
terrace. The residence part of the city was at one time an island w 
the great broad glacial river. The old channel lies west of the city. 

Essig.— 112 miles; Alt. 1,007 feet. Sleepy Eye.— 126 miles; Alt 
1,039 feet. (Evan-Marshall Line see p. 289.) (Redwood Falls Line see 
page 289.) 

After leaving the valley west of New Ulm the plain is gently un 
dulating ground moraine till the Cottonwood Valley is reached west oi 
Springfield. The clayey till contains enough sand to make a splendid 
soil. A moraine extends southwest from Sleepy Eye, and bordering 
this and related to it is an outwash deposit in Cottonwood Valley to the 
south. 

Cobden.— 132 miles; Alt. 1,038 feet. Springfield.— 140 miles; Alt. 
1,028 feet. 

Deep broad valley of Cottonwood River was cut by glacial waters. 
West of Springfield a moraine borders the Cottonwood Valley on the 
north, and this moraine continues south of the railroad along the north 

283 



284 THE ^TORY OF THE NORTH I^TAR UTATE 

side of Little Cottonwood Valley. The valley is silted up with sand and 
gravelly outwash from this moraine, or from the ice by which the moraine 
was formed. The glacial Cottonwood River originally flowed by San- 
born to Dotson and by the present valley of Little Cottonwood. Later, 
as the ice melted, the stream took the course by Springfield. 

Sanborn. — 148 miles; Alt. 1,099 feet. Lamberton. — 155 miles; Alt. 
1,145 feet. (For Vesta Line see p. 289.) (For Mason City Line see 
p. 287.) 

Sanborn stands on the glacial outwash filling of Cottonwood Valley. 
Lamberton is on the gently rolling till-plain immediately south of the 
outwash-fiUed valley. 

Revere.— 160 miles; Alt. 1,153 feet. 

Small sandy terminal moraine. Undulating till-plain west. 

Walnut Grove.— 166 miles ; Alt. 1,216 feet. Tracy.— 173 miles ; Alt. 
1,399 feet. (Marshall-Redfield Line see p. 289.) 

Three low moraines crossed Walnut Grove to Tracy. A fourth 
moraine between Tracy and Garvin. These moraines were formed on the 
west side of the Keewatin glacier. They are clayey in character, gen- 
erally, and not very strongly rolling. The soil of these and of the 
intervening till-plains is of fine quality. 

Garvin.— 180 miles; Alt. 1,538 feet. Balaton.— 186 miles; Alt. 1,526 
feet. Burchard. — 193 miles; Alt. 1,647 feet. (Crossing under G. N. 

Ry.) 

On gently rolling till-plain between two broad moraines. 

Tyler.— 200 miles; Alt. 1,748 feet. (For Astoria Line see p. 290.) 
Rolling till-plain, with many small lakes in depressions. 

Lake Benton.— 208 miles; Alt. 1,755 feet. 

Lake Benton (lake) lies in an old partially filled valley. The great 
Altamont moraine is here crossed, the high hills of which can be seen 
both to the north and south. The valley in which Flandreau Creek flows 
is a channel of glacial drainage, silted up with sand from the edge of 
the melting ice sheet. The moraine and the sand filling in the old valley 
prevent the waters of lake Benton from flowing away. 

Verdi.— 214 miles ; Alt. 1,768 feet. 

The railroad runs down the broad outwash plain of the PTandreau 
Creek valley, and then turns west to Verdi, which is on gently undu- 
lating till-plain bordering the outermost moraine. At the State line 
a sandy outwash valley is crossed, and the Old Gray drift of the Kansan 
ice sheet extends into South Dakota. 

MANKATO-WINONA LINE 

Eagh' Lake.— mih's from Maiikato; Alt. 1,019 feet. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 285 

The railroad swings out of the deep valley of the Minnesota to the 
rolling till-plain at Eagle Lake. 

Smith's Mill.— 16 miles; Alt. 1,060 feet. Janesville.— 19 miles; Alt. 
1,070 feet. 

Undulating or gently rolling till-plain to ^Waseca. Beautiful Lake 
Elysian north. 

Waseca. — 29 miles; Alt. 1,159 feet. (Waseca County.) (Crossing 
M. & St. L. Ry.) Meriden.— 35 miles; Alt. 1,137 feet. 

Rolling-hilly moraine east of Waseca nearly to Meriden. Group of 
fine morainic lakes east. Gently rolling till-plain continues to Owatonna. 

Owatonna.— 44 miles; Alt. 1,150 feet. (Crossing C, R. I. & P. Ry., 
C, M. & St. P. Ry.) (Steele County.) 

City stands on moraine, which extends 1 mile west. A belt of 
low morainic hills extends east, north of Havana. The very crooked 
Straight River flows through the city toward the north. 

Havana. — 49 miles; Alt. 1,219 feet. Anderson. — 53 miles; Alt. 1,275 
feet. Claremont. — 59 miles; Alt. 1,287 feet. 

A moraine 2 miles wide is crossed east of Havana, and east of this 
is a belt of undulating till-plain. This is the easternmost moraine formed 
by the Keewatin glacier of the Wisconsin ice sheet. Half a mile west 
of Claremont is the edge of the Young Gray drift and the beginning of 
the Old Gray drift (Kansan). (See Chap. IV.) The topography is now 
less rolling. Valleys are more deeply eroded, and there are no more 
lakes. 

Dodge Center.— 66 miles; Alt. 1,243 feet. (Crossing C. G. W. Ry.) 

The Old Gray drift plain is flat at Claremont, gently undulating about 
Dodge Center, and becomes gently rolling at Kasson. The valleys of 
the head streams of Middle Branch of Zumbro River are deep and bor- 
dered often by trees. The valleys were eroded by the ice waters from 
the melting of the Keewatin glacier, and flowed away across the old 
Kansan drift plain. 

Kasson.— 72 miles; Alt. 1,242 feet. Byron.— 77 miles; Alt. 1,262 feet. 
Mantorville.— Alt. 1,166 feet. (Dodge County.) 

The deposit of Old Gray drift is very thin here, and wind-blown 
loess occurs on the knolls. At Byron the surface is that of loess rather 
than drift. The surface is more rolling, owing to the piling of the 
fine loess dust by the winds before vegetation had formed a cover over 
the land. A gravelly knoll, technically known as a ''kame" lies south 
of the railroad about 2 miles, between Kasson and Byron. Mantorville, 
4 miles north from Kasson, is in the valley of Middle Branch of the 
Zumbro. Limestone is exposed in its sides. A fine view of this valle.y 
from the plain east of Byron. Eastward there is almost no drift. The 



286 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

''Driftless Area" is being entered. No lakes mark the landscape, and 
the valleys become increasingly deeper. 

Rochester.— 86 miles; Alt. 994 feet. (Crossing C. G. W. Ry.) (01m- 
stead County.) 

Rochester is located in a large amphitheater-like basin in which 
several upper tributaries of South Branch of Zumbro River meet. The 
valley bottom is broad, silted up with glacial sands and gravels together 
with materials derived from the erosion of the surrounding rocks. The 
basin is surrounded by limestone capped hills, on top of which are loess 
deposits. South the surface is that of the Old Gray drift, though very 
thin, and the capping of loess is very light. (For Rochester-Zumbrota 
Line see p. 300.) 

Haverhill.— 92 miles; Alt. 1,125 feet. Eyota.— 99 miles; Alt. 1,235 
feet. 

Haverhill is in a small valley, a tributary of the Zumbro, which has 
been eroded into the limestone. Eyota is on the Old Gray drift plain 
which is covered with loess to the north. 

Dover.— 104 miles; Alt. 1,147 feet. (Crossing C. G. W. Ry.) St. 
Charles.— 108 miles ; Alt. 1,143 feet. Utica.— 114 miles ; Alt. 1,174 feet. 

The railroad here runs on a ridge which forms the divide between 
Root River to the south and Whitewater to the north. This ridge is 
covered with a thin mantle of Old Gray drift as far as Utica. A gravelly 
kame lies north of Dover 1 mile. A tributary of the Whitewater be- 
tween Dover and St. Charles is eroded into the limestone. 

Lewiston. — 117 miles; Alt. 1,214 feet. Stockton. — 125 miles; Alt. 
769 feet. Minnesota City.— 130 miles; Alt. 677 feet. Winona.— 136 
miles; Alt. 671 feet. (Winona County.) 

Lewiston is on the loess-covered upland. The surface is gently \m- 
dulating to rolling. Stockton is in the deep valley of a tributary of 
the Rollingstone. The stream is a tiny brook, yet the valley is large, 
its broad bottom filled in with glacial outwash and detritus from erosion 
of the country rocks. Minnesota City is still farther down, upon a 
glacial flood-plain or terrace. The railroad swings around upon the 
broad glacial flood-plain of the Mississippi to Winona. 

PLAINVIEW BRANCH 

Viola. — 6 miles from Eyota; Alt. 1,130 feet. Elgin. — 11 miles; Alt 
1,071 feet. Plainview.— 16 miles; Alt. 1,169 feet. 

Viola and Plainview are situated upon the loess-covered upland 
plain. Elgin stands on the glacial and alluvial filling of the north brancli 
of Whitewater River. The valley becomes rapidly deeper downstream. 
Limestone outcrops in the valley sides south of Elgin. It is a magnifi- 
cent and fertile valley, this loess-covered plain. A drive long to be 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 287 

remembered and well worth the making is from Plainview to Winona 
via Beaver, Elba, Altura, and down the Rollingstone Valley to Minne- 
sota City and Winona. 

CHATFIELD BRANCH 

Chatfield.— 12 miles from Eyota ; Alt. 980 feet. 

Chatfield is located in the terraced valley of Root River. The Old 
Gray drift plain extends 3 or 4 miles south of the C. G. W. Railway cross- 
ing, then the railroad descends rapidly down a tributary valley to 
Chatfield, which stands on terraces above the river bottoms. Limestone 
rocks outcrop in the valley sides. Surrounding landscape outside the 
valleys is loess-covered, and fine farms testify to the fertility of the 
country. 

MANKATO-NICOLLET-NEW ULM LINE 

Kasota. — 6 miles from Burdette; Alt. 812 feet. St. Peter. — 8 miles; 
Alt. 817 feet. (Nicollet County.) Traverse.— 13 miles; Alt. 996 feet. 
Oshawa.— 18 miles; Alt. 983 feet. Nicollet.— 23 miles. Courtland.— 
30 miles ; Alt. 939 feet. New Ulm.— 37 miles ; Alt. 842 feet. 

The railroad crosses the Minnesota River below Kasota to St. Peter, 
then swings around upon the flat till-plain at Traverse. St. Peter stands 
upon glacial terraces of the Minnesota Valley. Many lakes lie upon the 
flat or gently rolling till-plain. Goose Lake is crossed by the railroad 
near Oshawa. Swan Lake is a large sheet of water having many islands 
to the northwest of Nicollet. Courtland is near the rock promontory 
described in Chapter XI as Old Redstone. New Ulm is on terraces of 
the Minnesota Valley. (See Chap. XV.) 

MASON CITY LINE 

Dotson. — 7 miles from Sanborn; Alt. 1,072 feet. 

Hilly sandy moraine both north and south. The railroad follows 
the old glacial channel which has been referred to as extending far 
west of Sanborn bordering the moraine. The ancient channel continues 
south and east. When the moraine north of Dotson was being formed 
the waters of this glacial stream probably discharged through the valley 
of the Watonwan. 

Comfrey.— 14 miles; Alt. 1,129 feet. Darfur.— 19 miles; Alt. 1,147 
feet. 

Moraine half way to Darfur, then gently rolling till-plain. West 
of Darfur a ridge or low hill of quartzite rock extends westward about 
20 miles. This is a remnant of the ancient pre-Cambrian formations. 
It was probably an island in the sea when the Paleozoic formations 
were laid down in this region. (See Chapters X & XL) Markings made 



288 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

by stones carried in the ice sheet are preserved on these hard rock sur- 
faces and show a movement of the ice to have been south by a little east. 

Butterfield.— 26 miles; Alt. 1J74 feet. (Crossing C, St. P., M .& 0. 
Ry.) Odin.— 33 miles; Alt. 1,211 feet. Triumph.— 40 miles; Alt. 1,218 
feet. (Crossing M. & St. L. Ry.) Fox Lake.— 46 miles; Alt. 1,241 feet. 

The railroad follows the course of the moraine from Darfur to Fox 
Lake, mostly on it. Odin, Triumph, and Fox Lake are on the moraine. 
Near Odin Watonwan River is crossed. This river drains the West Chain 
of Lakes, which borders the moraine on the west. Elm Creek crosses 
this moraine 3 miles north of Fox Lake, passing near the south end of 
the Chain of Lakes, but does not tap them. Northeast of Fox Lake this 
creek taps the north group of the Middle Chain of Lakes, and finally 
reaches Blue Earth River. Center Creek drains Fox and Eagle Lakes, 
and crosses the Middle Chain of Lakes at Fairmont, entering Blue Earth 
River 2 miles above Elm Creek. (See Chap. XXIII.) 

Welcome.— 49 miles; Alt. 1,228 feet. Fairmont. — 57 miles; Ale. 
1,187 feet. (Martin County.) (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 

Welcome is amongst morainic hills, which extend to Fairmont and 
south. Fairmont is at the east side of the moraine, with flat till-plain 
to the east. The moraine extends south to the State line, and the 
Middle Chain of Lakes lies immediately west of the moraine. Here are 
some of the most beautiful lakes in the State (or any other State). 
About 5 miles east is the East Chain of Lakes, a moraine lying on both 
the east and west. (See Chap. XXIII.J 

Imogene. — 63 miles; Alt. 1,130 feet. Guckeen. — 69 miles; Alt. 1,113 
feet. Blue Earth.— 75 miles; Alt. 1,087 feet. (Faribault County.) 

From Fairmont to Blue Earth and beyond the landscape is that of 
a flat or gently undulating till-plain, except that a low moraine is crossed 
west of Guckeen. 

Frost.— 85 miles; Atl. 1,129 feet. Bricelyn.— 92 miles; Atl. 1,184 
feet. (Crossing C, R. I. & P. Ry.) Kiester.— 96 miles; Alt. 1,231 feet. 

Gently undulating till-plain continues to Bricelyn where a moraine 
with rolling hills is entered. North of Bricelyn, is an ancient sandy 
lake bottom, the lake caused by ponding of the glacial waters from 
the melting ice sheet. The moraine continues from Kiester beyond the 
State line. 

BURT LINE 
Ceylon.— 10 miles from Fox Lake; Alt. 1,261 feet. 
Gently rolling till-plain from Fox Lake south to Ceylon and the 
State line, with numerous lakes. North fork Des Moines River is 
crossed north of Ceylon in an outwash valley from the moraine west of 
Sherburn. A small moraine at Ceylon. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 289 



REDWOOD FALLS LINE 



Evan.— 134 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,029 feet. Morgan.— 140 
miles ; Alt. 1,046 feet. 

Gently undulating ground moraine or till-plain, Sleepy Eye to and 
beyond Morgan. Narrow sandy moraine 10 miles long and one-fourth 
mile in width, 2 miles west of railroad and parallel with it. Another 
narrow sandy moraine crossed east of Redwood Falls. 

Redwood Falls.— 152 miles; Alt. 1,036 feet. (Redwood County.) 

A picturesque gorge has been cut in the granite rock at and below 
Redwood Palls by the Redwood River. 

''The beauty of this deep rock-walled gorge, about li/^ miles long 
with its cascades and rapids and meandering river, can scarcely be 
over-stated. ' ' — ( Upham. ) 

EVAN-MARSHALL LINE 

Clement.— 144 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 1,057 feet. 

On long winding sandy moraine which extends from north of Cobden 
in a narrow belt a fourth of a mile to a half mile in width northwest 
to Vesta, where it joins the larger moraine. 

Wabasso.— 155 miles ; Alt. 1,080 feet. Lucan.— 160 miles ; Alt. 1,093 
feet. Milroy.— 170 miles; Alt. 1,105 feet. Dudley.— 176 miles; Alt. 
1,150 feet. Marshall.— 180 miles; Alt. 1,167 feet. (Lyon County.) 

Gently undulating till-plain. Marshall is on the moraine which lies 
north of Cottonwood Valley at Sanborn. 

VESTA LINE 

Wand.— 154 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,093 feet. Wabasso.— 160 
miles; Alt. 1,080 feet. Seaforth.— 167 miles; Alt. 1,054 feet. Vesta.— 
172 miles; Alt. 1,061 feet. 

Seaforth is at the eastern end of an outwash glacial channel that 
extends for 50 miles, to Canby in western Yellow Medicine County, along 
the southwest border of a large moraine which extends northwest of 
Lac qui Parle County, beyond the State line. Redwood River, Three 
Mile Creek, and Yellow Medicine River each meander for a time on the 
sandy plain of this ancient water course. 

MARSHALL-REDFIELD LINE 

Amiret.— 180 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,282 feet. 

Till-plain, on east slope of Coteau des Prairies. 

Heckman.— 186 miles; Alt. 1,170 feet. Marshall.— 190 miles; Alt. 
1,167 feet. (Lyon County.) 

An outwash glacial channel extends from Heckman southeast to 
and beyond Sanborn, along which meanders the Cottonwood River. A 



290 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

prominent moraine extends from beyond the South Dakota line south- 
east for 125 miles. The outwash channel referred to was formed by 
waters from the melting ice sheet at the time of formation of this mo- 
raine. Marshall stands on this moraine. 

Minneota.— 203 miles;" Alt. 1,168 feet. Taunton.— 208 miles; Alt. 
1,178 feet. Porter.— 213 miles; Alt. 1,211 feet. Canby.— 221 miles; 
Alt. 1,240 feet. Burr.— 225 miles; Alt. 1,327 feet. Gary.— 231 miles; 
Alt. 1,483 feet. 

The railroad runs on or near this moraine to Taunton. Between 
Taunton and Porter a small outwash plain is crossed. At Canby another 
outwash plain is crossed, related to the same moraine. Canby is located 
at the east side of a moraine, that to the west and parallel with the 
one just referred to. Burr is on rolling till-plain. Gary is on the edge 
of the great moraine which marks the second halting place of the western 
edge of the great Keewatin ice sheet. This moraine has been called b}^ 
Professor Warren Upham the Gary moraine. It is well developed here. 
This moraine extends beyond Gary in South and North Dakota, and 
southeastward across Minnesota to Jackson County and beyond in 
Towa. 

ASTORIA LINE 

Arco.— 208 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,657 feet. 

Rolling till-plain with frequent lakes, Tyler to Arco. 

Ivanhoe. — 215 miles; Alt. 1,655 feet. (Lincoln County.) Hend- 
ricks.— 225 miles; Alt. 1,783 feet. 

Moraine crossed north from Arco, then on border of rolling till- 
plain, to Ivanhoe. West from Ivanhoe cross moraine again, and on 
to rolling till-plain to Hendricks. Many lakes both in the moraine and 
on the till-plain. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 291 

THE CHICAGO, ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS & OMAHA RAILWAY 

SIOUX CITY AND OMAHA LINE 

St. Paul.— miles; Alt. 706 feet. (Ramsey County.) 

Leaving' Union Depot the railroad follows the Mississippi Valley to 
Mendota, where the Minnesota Valley joins the Mississippi. Fori 
Snelling' stands on the high terrace of the glacial Mississippi, which lies 
to the west. The St. Peter sandstone outcrops in the valley sides, and 
overlying this formation is, the harder and more enduring Trenton lime- 
stone. The sandstone is very soft and friable, and the limestone 
overlying protects the softer sandstone layers, resulting in steep walls 
as sides of the valley. 

Mendota. — 6 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 735 feet. Savage. — 19 miles. 

On the alluvial plain of the glacial Minnesota River. St. Peter 
sandstone and Trenton limestone outcroppings along sides of valley. 
On the bluffs above and bordering the valley a clayey terminal moraine 
extends from St. Paul to Mendota and west beyond Savage. 

Shakopee.— 28 miles; Alt. 758 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 
(Scott County.) 

Broad alluvial plain on south side of valley. Savage to Shakopee. The 
Paleozoic formations, St. Peter sandstone, and Trenton limestone outcrop 
along valley sides. 

Mudbaden. — 37 miles. Jordan. — 39 miles; Alt. 755 feet. (Crossing 
M. & St. L. Ry.) - 

On alluvial flood-plain or terrace of glacial Minnesota River. An 
"island" of Paleozoic rock (Trenton limestone) surrounded by alluvial 
plain west of Jordan. 

Belle Plaine. — 46 miles; Alt. 731 feet. Henderson. — 58 miles; Alt. 
741 feet. LeSueur.— 62 miles ; Alt. 760 feet. 

From Belle Plaine to Ottawa the railroad runs upon the alluvial 
plain of the valley bottom. This broad valley is filled in with drift borne 
by the later glacial Minnesota River. 

Ottawa. — 68 miles. 

Valley is here narrow, a headland of limestone jutting out into the 
valley. Rolling till-plain above on either side of the valley. 

St. Peter.— 75 miles ; Alt. 754 feet. 

The Minnesota Valley is here about 250 feet in depth. Glacial ter- 
races border the valley, the highest about 150 feet above the present 
river. The city stands upon glacial gravel terraces. Rock ledges appear 
in the valley sides up to heights of 50 and 75 feet. 

Kasota.— 77 miles ; Alt. 807 feet. 

A fine building stone, known as Kasota sandstone, of Cambrian age, 
is quarried here. 



292 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Mankato. — 86 miles; Alt. 783 feet. (Blue Earth County.) 

Blue Earth River enters the Minnesota from the south. Both valleys 
are deeply eroded into the Paleozoic formations. Glacial terraces occur 
on the side of the valley opposite the city. 

Lake Crystal.— 99 miles; Alt. 987 feet. 

The railroad leaves the deep valley of the Minnesota after crossing 
the Blue Earth, and ascends to the rolling till-plain. Crystal Lake is a 
good example of a morainic lake. The town stands at the east end of 
a moraine, which extends south of the railroad to Madelia. Two small 
moraines rise from the till-plain, one south the other north of the track, 
between Lake Crystal and Madelia. (Winnebago and Blue Earth Line 
see p. 294.) 

Madelia.— 110 miles ; Alt. 1,028 feet. 

Moraine one mile in width ; group of morainic lakes east. Outwash 
plain crossed west. 

Grogan.— 116 miles ; Alt. 1,049 feet. 

On rolling till-plain, clayey in character. (Fairmont Line see p. 294.) 

St. James.— 122 miles; Alt. 1,084 feet. (Crossing M. & St. L. Ry.) 

Moraine 3 miles in width. This moraine extends almost unbroken 
in a northwest-southeast direction across the State, a distance of nearly 
150 miles, varying in width from less than 1 mile to 3 miles. 

Butterfield.— 130 miles; Alt. 1,191 feet. (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) 
Mountain Lake. — 134 miles; Alt. 1,306 feet. 

Rolling till-plain or ground moraine east. West cross terminal 
moraine. Mountain Lake on gently rolling till-plain. 

Bingham Lake. — 143 miles; Alt. 1,425 feet. 

Rolling till-plain, with morainic lakes and sloughs. Terminal mo- 
raine one-half mile in width crossed 3 miles east. (For Currie Line see 
p. 295.) 

Windom.— 148 miles; Alt. 1,359 feet. (Cottonwood County.) 

Cross moraine 2 miles wide. Windom stands on outwash filling in 
Des Moines Valley. Blue Mounds, 3 miles northwest, are drift hills that 
rise 100 feet or more above their bases. 

Wilder. — 154 miles; Alt. 1,456 feet. Heron Lake. — 160 miles; Alt. 
1,424 feet. (For Pipestone Line see p. 294.) 

Rolling moraine at Wilder, followed by undulating till-plain west. 
Morainic lakes. Gently rolling till-plain continues to Worthington. 

Heron Lake was once one of the most famous lakes for wild fowl 
in Minnesota. It is bordered by extensive marshes, once the home of 
vast numbers of Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, and Gadwell. In early times 
this was the nesting place of a considerable number of Trumpeter swans, 
one pair breeding there as late as 1883. Heron Lake is remarkable for 



GEOLOGY FROM A GAR WINDOW 293 

the many varieties of water-fowl frequenting its Avaters, practically all 
kinds common to inland waters being found here. A day's shooting 
often consists of 10 to 15 different species. 

Miloma.— 164 miles; Alt. 1,433 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 
Brewster.— 170 miles; Alt. 1,493 feet. Worthington.— 178 miles; Alt. 
1,595 feet. (Nobles County.) (Crossing C, R. I. & P. Ry.) Org.— 182 
miles. Bigelow.— 187 miles; Alt. 1,637 feet. 

Lakes on till-plain represent old valleys partially filled with drift. 
Two moraines crossed between Org and Bigelow. Outwash plain west 
of Bigelow. 

SIOUX FALLS AND MITCHELL LINE 

Rushmore. — 190 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 1,683 feet. 

Two moraines are crossed between Worthington and Rushmore, 
separated by a belt of till-plain varying from 1 to 5 miles in width. 
These moraines are the outermost of those formed at the west side of 
the Keewatin glacier, and lie along the high plain of the Coteau des 
Prairies. 

Adrian.— 197 miles ; Alt. 1,565 feet. 

A thin covering of drift from the Keewatin ice sheet (Wisconsin) 
extends westward from the moraine to the east. This drift forms a 
thin veneer over the old Kansan drift. Drainage is along lines estab- 
lished before the last ice invasion, and is southwestward to the Big 
Sioux and the Missouri. The valleys are broad with sluggish streams 
meandering on gravelly outwash. Two miles west of Adrian the land- 
scape is that of the Old Gray drift (Kansan). 

Magnolia. — 204 miles; Alt. 1,530 feet. Luverne. — 211 miles; Alt. 
1,469 feet. (Rock County.) (Crossing C, R. I. & P. Ry.) 

Magnolia is on the Old Gray drift plain, between two valleys having 
outwash filling. Luverne is on the sandy and gravelly outwash that 
forms the broad glacial floodplain of Rock River valley. Ash Creek is 
on the outwash filling of this valley on the branch that runs south. 

About 2 miles north of Luverne a hill of ancient quartzite rock 
rises 150 to 200 feet above the surrounding landscape. It is 10 to 12 
miles in length north and south, and about 2 miles in width. Another 
outcropping of this ancient rock about 3 miles north and south by 1 
mile in width lies 1 to 2 miles west of the larger hill just described. 
These are outlying remnants of the primitive formations of Minnesota. 
(See Chap. X.) 

Beaver Creek.— 219 miles; Alt. 1,461 feet. Manley.— 220 miles. 



294 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

From Luverne west the plain is loess-covered. (See Chapters I & 
XXVI.) A characteristic broad sweep in the surface lines distinguishes 
this district from the more abruptly rolling drift deposits farther east. 
The topography here is that of preglacial time, modified by deposits of 
loess over the thin veneer of Old Gray drift. 

WINNEBAGO AND BLUE EARTH LINE 

Garden City.— 104 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 969 feet. 

In valley of Watonwan River. Sandy moraine north, 2 miles in 
width. Rolling till-plain south. 

Vernon Center. — 100 miles; Alt. 1,026 feet. Amboy. — 115 miles; 
Alt. 1,046 feet. 

In valley of Blue Earth River. Clayey till-plain, splendid soil, 
gently rolling, south to Amboy, Winnebago, and the State line. 

Winnebago.— 123 miles; Alt. 1,098 feet. (Crossing C, M. & S. P. 
Ry.) Blue Earth.— 133 miles; Alt. 1,086 feet. (Faribault County.) 
(Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) Elmore.— 143 miles; Alt. 1,130 feet. 

Gently rolling or undulating till-plain continues to the State line. 
Blue Earth River meanders over the bottom of a valley that becomes 
deep and broad northward. 

FAIRMONT LINE 

Lewisville. — 119 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,065 feet. Truman. — 
126 miles; Alt. 1,112 feet. Northrop.— 132 miles; Alt. 1,144 feet. .Fair- 
mont— 138 miles; Alt. 1,160 feet. (Martin County.) 

Madelia south to Truman is gently rolling till-plain, with morainic 
lakes and undrained depressions. Moraine crossed south of Truman. 
Elm Creek, which is crossed south of the moraine. This creek meanders 
over a broad outwash valley bottom northwest of Northrop, and be- 
fore it enters the Chain of Lakes. The outwash is related to a moraine 
which lies north. Elm Creek ''drains" the Middle Chain of Lakes, if 
indeed they may be said to be drained. Farther south Center Creek is 
crossed, which also "drains" part of this Chain of Lakes. A moraine 
is crossed north of Fairmont, and this moraine extends south of Fair- 
mont east of the Middle Chain of Lakes to the State line. 

The Middle Chain of Lakes, like the other two chains which lie east 
and west of this, are remnants of valleys by which the land was drained 
before the invasion of ice by which the drainage systems were destroyed. 
(See Chap. XXIII.) 

PIPESTONE LINE 
Dundee. — 168 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,453 feet. Lime Creek.— 
174 miles; Alt. 1,492 feet. Avoca.— 180 miles; Alt. 1,541 feet. Slay- 
ton.— 186 miles; Alt. 1,611 feet. (Murray County.) 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 295 

All on undulating or gently rolling till-plain. Pooling streams 
occur, but these can hardly be said to drain the landscape. The landscape 
is young, the original drainage systems having been destroyed by the 
invasion of the great ice sheet. Lakes occupying depressions in the till- 
plain, when connected, form a line of ''drainage" in name, but the land 
is essentially without drainage systems. Local drainage from the slopes 
gives good character to the soil, which is very fertile. 

Hadley.— 191 miles; Alt. 1,696 feet. 

At north edge of a rolling, hilly moraine. Till-plain south. 

Lake Wilson.— 196 miles ; Alt. 1,662 feet. 

Near boundary between till-plain and rolling sandy moraine, 4 
miles in width. Glacial outwash channel west of this moraine. 

Woodstock.— 204 miles; Alt. 1,829 feet. 

On rolling till-plain. Three miles west cross outwash plain in 
valley of upper Rock River. Till-plain, gently undulating to rolling to 
Eton and Pipestone. 

Pipestone.— 215 miles; Alt. 1,732 feet. (Pipestone County.) 

Hard quartzite rock outcrops at Pipestone over an area about 3 
miles north and south and 1 to 2 miles in width. The westei-n margin 
of the later drift (Wisconsin) is along the w^est side of the townsite. 
Glacial striae or markings on the hard quartzite rock surfaces have a 
trend south by southwest. About a mile north of the city, on the 
Indian reservation, is the famous pipestone quarry. This rock is an 
indurated clay (decomposed quartzite leached and compressed into a 
definite layer), the deposit having a thickness of about 1% feet, and 
overlain by several feet of hard rock. West of Pipestone the land sur- 
face is that of the Old Gray drift. This old drift plain is cut across 
between Pipestone and Airlee by an outwash filled valley. 

CURRIE LINE 

Delft.— 149 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,443 feet. 

North from Bingham Lake the railroad runs amongst rolling mo- 
rainic hills to and beyond Delft. 

Jeffers.— 157 miles ; Alt. 1,479 feet. 

On rolling till-plain. A belt of morainic hills lies east, same as 
that at Delft. North about 3 miles is the west end of a low quartzite 
hill which extends eastward about 15 miles, and having a width of 1 
to 2 miles. Glacial striae on surfaces of this rock have a south-south- 
easterly trend. West the railroad crosses a hilly moraine, clayey in 
character. 

Storden.— 164 miles; Alt. 1,394 feet. Westbrook.— 169 miles; Alt 
1,422 feet. 



■Z9Q THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

On rolling till-plain. 

Dovray.— 175 miles; Alt. 1,520 feet. 

On sandy moraine 3 miles in width. 

Currie.— 182 miles ; Alt.. 1,483 feet. 

On rolling till-plain. Sandy moraine north and east. Clayey mo- 
raine west and south. Lakes Sarah and Shetek, morainic lakes, sources 
of the Des Moines River, north. 

ST. PAUL-STILLWATER LINE 

Lake Elmo.— 12 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 935 feet. Stillwater.— 
18 miles. (Washington County.) 

From Union Depot, St. Paul, the railroad climbs out of the Missis- 
sippi Valley by a partially filled preglacial valley, and crosses the roll- 
ing moraine to Lake Elmo, which is at the north end of an outwash 
plain which fills an old valley. (See Chap. XVII.) East of Lake Elmo 
to Stillwater Junction a moraine is crossed, then the railroad follows 
a terrace of the St. Croix to Stillwater. Stillwater is built on glacial 
terraces of the St. Croix. (See Chap. XVII.) 



CHAPTER XXX 

GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 

THE CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY 

MINNEAPOLIS & ST. PAUL-CHICAGO LINE 

Minneapolis to St. Paul runs over tracks of Great Northern Railway. 
(See p. 316.) 

St. Paul. — 10 miles from Minneapolis; Alt. 708 feet. (Ramsey 
County.) 

Leaving Union Depot the railroad crosses the Mississippi River and 
follows the west bank to South St. Paul. At South Park an outwash of 
red gravel from the red drift moraine on the higher upland is passed. 

South St. Paul. — 15 miles from Minneapolis; Alt. 705 feet. 

Stock yards and packing plants are on the alluvial flats, or modern 
river deposits. The residence part of South St. Paul is on the high glacial 
terrace. 

Inver Grove. — 18 miles from Minneapolis; Alt. 720 feet. 

From South St. Paul to 2 miles beyond Inver Grove the railroad 
runs on a low terrace of Oneota dolomite (limestone), the glacial ter- 
race lying at a level about 100 feet higher. About 3 miles south of 
Inver Grove the railroad cuts across the red drift moraine. Before reach- 
ing Rich Valley an ancient waterway is crossed, this being an old, partly 
filled valley which was once the course of the Mississippi from Mendota 
to Pine Bend. (See Chap. XVI.) 

Rich Valley.— 26i miles ; Alt. 865 feet. Coates.— 29 miles ; Alt. 923 
feet. Empire.— 33 miles; Alt. 859 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 

Large sandy outwash plain from the moraine south and east of St. 
Paul. Tree-covered morainic hills west in near distance beyond outwash 
plain southwest of Coates. 

Hampton. — 37 miles; Alt. 983 feet. 

South of Empire the outwash plain gives way to a rolling plain of 
the Old Red drift. At Hampton a terminal moraine marks the souther- 
most limit in Minnesota of the Old Red drift. (See Chap. IV.) South 
and west of Hampton is a rolling plain of Old Gray drift. The St. Peter 
sandstone is exposed in ridges which are cut by the railroad south of 
Hampton. A ridge of this sandstone rises above the Old Gray drift 
plain to the west. 

Randolph. — 43 miles; Alt. 885 feet. (Red Wing-Rochester Line see 
p. 299. Randolph-Mankato Line see p. 303.) 

297 



298 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

About half way between Hampton and Randolph a sandy outwash 
plain is entered upon which extends to the east. To the east about 3 
miles approaching Randolph an "island" or mound of St. Peter sand- 
stone is a conspicuous landscape feature rising above the surrounding 
outwash plain. Cannon River is crossed, bordered on either side by the 
sandy outwash plain. (See Chap. XXV.) 

Stanton.— 47 miles; Alt. 925 feet. 

Sandy plain of glacial deposit in old valley now occupied by Prairie 
Creek. Outcropping ledges of rock in bluffs of ancient valley both 
east and west, Trenton limestone above, St. Peter sandstone below. 
Gently rolling plain of Old Gray drift both east and west of the ancient 
watercourse in which Prairie Creek now flows. 

Dennison. — 52 miles ; Alt. 972 feet. 

Outcropping limestone and sandstone on east side of valley. Leave 
ancient watercourse to south and cross Old Gray drift plain; then about 
3 miles across a loess covered area to Nerstrand. 

Nerstrand.— 57 miles; Alt. 1,186 feet. 

On boundary between the loess covered area (to the north) and 
the Old Gray drift plain to the south. 

Kenyon. — 63 miles; Alt. 1,145 feet. 

The gently rolling and undulating plain of Old Gray drift is cut 
through by the valley of North Branch of Zumbro River, crossed north 
of Kenyon. The steep banks are beautifully wooded. 

Skyberg. — 68 miles; Alt. 1,195 feet. West Concord. — 73 miles; Alt. 
1,232 feet. 

Eden.— 77 miles ; Alt. 1,220 feet. 
Dodge Center.— 82 miles; Alt. 1,295 feet. (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) 
Vlasaty.— 86 miles; Alt. 1,334 feet. Hayfield.— 91 miles. (Omaha Line 
see p. 299.) Sargeant.— 98 miles; Alt. 1,385 feet. Renova.— 103 miles; 
Alt. 1,390 feet. (Crossing C. M. & St. P. Ry.) Elkton.— 109 miles; Alt. 
1,382 feet. Taopi.— 117 miles; Alt. 1,344 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. 

Ry.) 

Gently undulating plain of Old Gray drift. Splendid farming 
region. (See Chapters IV & XXVI.) Small streams head on this plain 
which flow east into the Mississippi River. East of Hayfield, but scarcely 
visible from the car window, are several gravelly hills known as kames. 
These are deposits of moraine-like character of the Old Gray drift. 
MANTORVILLE BRANCH 

Wassioji. — 4 miles from Eden. 

Valley of South Middle Fork of Zumbro River cuts deeply into 
the plain of the Old Gray drift. 

Mantorville. — 7 miles. (Dodge County.) 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 299 

At this point the river has cut deeper, the Trenton limestone being- 
exposed in the deeper banks below the mantle of Old Gray drift. 

THE OMAHA LINE 

Waltham. — 96 miles from Minneapolis; Alt. 1,328 feet. 

Gently undulating Old Gray drift plain. 

Mayville.— 101 miles ; Alt. 1,257 feet. 

At Mayville a small stream is crossed which flows westward into 
the Cedar. The divide or "watershed" on this plain is imperceptible 
to the eye. 

Austin.— 108 miles; Alt 1,200 feet. (Crossing C. M. & St. P. Ry.) 
(Mower County.) 

Austin is on the western edge of the Old Gray drift in the ancient 
glacial channel in which the Cedar noAv flows. 

Varco.— 112 miles; Alt. 1,020 feet 

Rose Creek enters the ancient watercourse of the Cedar Valley from 
the east. 

Lyle.— 120 miles ; Alt. 1,205 feet. 

Near the State line, on the undulating plain of the Old Gray drift, 
where another small creek flows west to Cedar Valley. 

RED WING-ROCHESTER LINE 

Randolph. — 43 miles; Alt. 885 feet. Cannon Falls. — 50 miles; Alt. 
816 feet. Welch.— 59 miles; Alt. 718 feet. Red Wing.— 71 miles; Alt. 
712 feet. (Goodhue County.) 

Broad gravelly outwash plain Randolph to Cannon Falls. Cannon 
River south. The course of the river was originally north of the two 
broad flat-topped mesas that lie to the north. (See Chap. XXV.) From 
Cannon Falls to Red Wing the deep canyon-like valley is followed. 
Walls of rock rise 400 feet on either side, This is a picturesque ride. 
The great valley was cut in preglacial times. The river now meanders 
over gravelly filling that Avas not entirely removed by the glacial flood 
waters. Red Wing is built on gravelW terraces of the glacial Mississippi. 

Hay Creek.— 78 miles ; Alt. 807 feet. 

From Red Wing the railroad ascends the valley of Hay Creek. The 
flat valley bottom is alluvium. The bluffs overlooking the valley are 
capped with loess. The St. Croix sandstone outcrops in the valley sides 
and forms many hummocks and knobs on the valley bottom. 

Goodhue.— 87 miles; Alt. 1,121 feet. 

Goodhue is fully 300 feet higher than Red Wing. Here an area of 
Cretaceous rock overlies the St. Peter sandstone, and is itself thinly cov- 
ered with loess. In the Cretaceous deposits valuable commercial clays 



300 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

occur, and extensive pits have been opened for clay for manufacturing 
of clay products at Red Wing. 

Zumbrota.— 97 miles; Alt. 984 feet. (Crossing C. M. & St. P. Ry.) 

The railroad passes off the Cretaceous formation to the south of 
Zumbrota, onto the lower St. Peter sandstone and Richmond sandstone, 
then ascends again upon the Trenton limestone. Approaching Zumbrota, 
where the South Branch of Zumbro River is crossed, the St. Peter 
sandstone outcrops in the valley sides. The uplands are overlain with 
loess. 

Pine Island.— 106 miles; Alt. 998 feet. Oronoco.— 109 miles; Alt. 
1,042 feet. 

From Zumbrota south the C. G. W. and C. & N. W. railroads run 
nearly parallel to Rochester. The St. Peter sandstone forms the valley 
slope south and east of Zumbrota, being thinly covered with Old Graj^ 
drift and loess. The Trenton limestone underlies the loess north of Pine 
Island. The limestone is harder and protects the soft and friable sand- 
stone beneath, thus causing knobs and pinnacles to be formed. Pine 
Island is in the valley of the North Middle Branch of Zumbro River. 
Alluvial deposits form the valley floor below Pine Island. Running across 
the valley of South Middle Branch of the Zumbro the St. Peter sand- 
stone forms the valley floor where the river is crossed. The sandstone 
is again covered by the Trenton limestone on the higher land southward. 
The bluffs are in many places rocky, and rise more than 100 feet in 
height. The valley is deep and its sides generally steep. The valley is 
naturally timbered and is such as to appeal to the nature lover. 

Douglas.— 114 miles ; Alt. 1,080 feet. 

The sandstone formation is covered by a thin mantle of Old Gray 
drift. North and east of Douglas are gravelly hills technically known 
as kames. Such hills are generally gravelly in character, and are asso- 
ciated with moraines. These hills are among the most eastern gravel 
deposits in the State. South of Douglas the formations are covered 
with loess. The railroad descends upon the alluvial valley bottom at 
Rochester, the floor of which valley is limestone (Trenton) with irregular 
bluffs and hummocks of sandstone (St. Peter) protected by the harder 
limestone. 

Rochester.— 122 miles; Alt. 998 feet. (Olmstead County.) 

Rochester lies in the valley of South Branch of the Zumbro. The 
Trenton limestone caps the bluffs which surround the city. The bluffs 
are generally flat on top and covered with a mantle of loess. The city 
is in the center of an amphitheatre of limestone capped bluffs, the lime- 
stone at one time forming a continuous plain 200 feet above the present 
site of the city, the friable St. Peter sandstone lying underneath. The 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 301 

numerous tributaries of South Branch of Zumbro River which meet 
in the arena about Rochester give to the city a unique location. 

Simpson.— 130 miles ; Alt. 1,062 feet. 

South from Rochester the plain is that of the Old Gray drift, deeply 
cut into by streams. Simpson is on the high prairie, and is on a tract 
of loess-covered drift. 

Stewartville.— 137 miles; Alt. 1,240 feet. 

The valley of Root River is here 75 to 100 feet below the plain of 
the Old Gray drift which forms the prairie bordering the valley. Lime- 
stone cliffs form the valley sides in many places, and hardwood forests 
add beauty to the rugged valley. 

Racine.— 142 miles ; Alt. 1,296 feet. 

Racine is on the gently undulating prairie of Old Gray drift. To 
the south Bear Creek and Deer Creek are crossed. These valleys are 
here cut through the mantle of Old Gray drift to a depth of 75 feet, 
into the limestone. 

Spring Valley.— 149 miles; Alt. 1,317 feet. (Crossing C. M. & St. 
P. Ry.) 

A thin veneer of Old Gray drift covers the limestone formation 
(Galena.) Sink-holes are common on this mantled limestone plain. 
These sometimes occur in series, indicating that a preglacial valley had 
been eroded into the limestone and later filled with drift. Sometimes a 
small surface stream leads to a sink-hole and abruptly disappears. The 
Galena and Trenton limestones erode into fantastic forms, and frequently 
form caverns. Underground dissolving of the rock and caving in of 
the surface frequently results in a sink-hole being developed. 

Ostrander — 156 miles; Alt. 1,343 feet. 

South of Ostrander the South Branch of Root River is crossed. Here 
the valley is cut into the Old Gray drift, but it soon becomes deeper and 
is entrenched in the Galena and Trenton limestone formations. Ostrand- 
er is on the plain of Old Gray drift, which extends to the State line 
near Le Roy. 

Le Roy.— 164 miles; Alt. 1,243 feet. (Crossing C. M. & St. P. Ry.j 

The valley of Iowa River has cut 50 to 75 feet through the clayey 
drift mantle into the limestone. 

THE WINONA-ROCHESTER LINE 

Winona. — 296 miles from Chicago; Alt. 444 feet. (Winona County.) 

Winona is located on the broad alluvial plain of the Old Mississippi 

Valley. The bluffs rise 550 to 600 feet above the river. The many 

streams that enter the great valley descend through deep gorge-like 

valleys whose bottoms merge into that of the main valley. Up stream 



302 THE a TORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

these valleys become narrower and their sides more rugged, often termi- 
nating in rugged cliffs over which small rivulets fall. Sugar Loaf Bluff 
is a splendid monument carved in the great process of valley-making, 
which rises about 600 feet above its base. (For description of the 
Mississippi Valley see Chap. XVI.) 

Minnesota City. — 11 miles from Winona ; Alt. 513 feet. 

Minnesota City is located at the mouth of Rolling Stone Creek. The 
high gravel terrace of this valley joins with the great terrace of the 
Mississippi. This terrace is more than 50 feet above the bottom of Roll- 
ing Stone Valley. The terrace was the valley bottom during the time 
when the glacial waters were carrying drift down the preglacial valleys. 
Later erosion removed part of the filled-in material cutting the valley 
down to the lower floodplain. If all the drift and alluvium were removed 
the valley would be probably 100 feet deeper than it is now, that is, 
the bottom would be 100 feet lower than the present river and sandstone 
and limestone rocks would be exposed along the valley bottom and sides. 

Rolling Stone. — 14 miles; Alt. 547 feet. 

The railroad climbs up Rolling Stone Valley following up the ter- 
race plain. The valle.y narro^vs upstream, and becomes more gorge-like. 
Sandstone and limestone rock ledges form steep walls and promontories. 
Rolling Stone Valley is a fine valley. It is wide, and extends smoothly 
from the river toward the bluffs which border it. The main flat is the 
same terrace which extends up another creek to Stockton, and is con 
tinuous with the great terrace of the Mississippi. 

Bear Creek.— 21 miles; Alt. 727 feet. Altura.— 23 miles; Alt. 965 
feet. 

The railroad winds along the tortuous course of a small tributary 
stream, climbing up to the loess covered plain at Altura. A short dis- 
tance west is the deep valley of the Whitewater. 

Bethany.— 27 miles; Alt. 904 feet. Utiea.— 32 miles; Alt. 968 feet. 

At Altura the railroad turns south and folloAvs the high loess cov- 
ered plain to Bethany, keeping on the divide between Rolling Stone and 
Whitewater Valleys. The railroad crosses a tributary of the Whitewater 
south of Bethany. The valley of the Whitewater, which flows north 
through Elba township, is a beautiful valley, with its many tributaries. 
The tributaries are narrow and gorge-like in their upper courses, the 
main valley from Elba down being a magnificent broad and fertile 
valley. 

St. Charles.— 37 miles; Alt. 922 feet. 

The city is on the undulating plain of Old Gray drift. One of the 
head streams of the Whitewater passes north of the city, and in thf 
valley ledges of Shakopee limestone are exposed. A plateau of Trenton 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 30:J 

limestone lies to the south. This rises abruptly nearly 100 feet above 
the loess covered plain along the railroad. This limestone resists erosion 
and thus steep bluffs are formed along the edge of the plateau, the soft 
and friable St. Peter sandstone crumbling away underneath it as the 
limestone ledges are weathered and broken off. South of St. Charles 
about 2 miles is a tributary of Root River, which has eroded into the 
St. Peter sandstone. St. Charles is thus on a narrow divide between 
the Whitewater and Root Rivers. 

Dover.— 41 miles; Alt. 937 feet. (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) 

A small valley of a tributary of the Whitewater has been cut into 
the St. Peter sandstone. A thin mantle of Old Gray drift overlies the 
sandstone outside the valley. 

Laird.— 45 miles; Alt. 1,104 feet. 

Laird is on the gently rolling or undulating plain of Old Gray drift. 

Predmore. — 51 miles; Alt. 1,023 feet. 

A narrow belt of loess borders the Old Gray drift and caps the 
bluffs overlooking the valley of the Root. The station is on the ridge 
which forms the divide between the Root and the Zuinbro, the dis- 
tance between the head valleys being barely more than 1 or 2 miles. 

RANDOLPH-MANKATO LINE 

Randolph. — 43 miles from Minneapolis ; Alt. 885 feet. Waterf ord.— 
7 miles from Randolph; Alt. 908 feet. Northfield.— 9 miles ; Alt. 913 
feet. 

Gravelly outwash plain up Cannon River. The boundary between 
the Old Gray drift (Kansan) east and the Young (Keewatin) Gray drift 
west is a little east of Waterford and Northfield. When the edge of 
the Keewatin glacier was about where Northfield and Waterford are 
now floods of water from the melting ice sheet were forced across an 
old divide at Northfield and thus the present course of Cannon River 
was established. The rapids at Northfield were caused by the water 
being forced over a rocky divide. The drainage had formerly been in 
the opposite direction, to the Minnesota. (See Chap. XXY.) 

Dundas.— 12 miles; Alt. 929 feet. Bridgewater.— 16 miles; Alt. 
1,013 feet. Faribault.— 23 miles ; Alt. 982 feet. (Rice County.) 

South of Northfield the valley is comparatively narroAv. Morainic 
hills cap the bluffs on the east. St. Peter sandstone capped with Tren- 
ton limestone is exposed in the valley sides. A gravel deposit known 
as an esker is crossed near Bridgewater. At Faribault the gravel filling 
of the valley of the glacial Cannon River is reached. The upper Cannon 
at one time discharged southward by the valley now occupied by Straight 



3U4 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

River, before the present course by Dundas and Northfield was estab- 
lished. 

Warsaw. — 32 miles; Alt. 1,013 feet. Morristown. — 35 miles; Alt. 
1,013 feet. Waterville.— 41 miles; Alt. 1,011 feet. 

West of Faribault the railroad follows the plain of gravel filling 
that forms the floor of the broad glacial valley. Beautiful Cannon Lake 
is skirted on the south. Morainic hills border the valley. The valley 
is a most beautiful one. The lakes at Waterville are gems. 

Elysian. — 47 miles; Alt. 1,051 feet. Madison Lake. — 54 miles; Alt. 
1,051 feet. Watters. — 61 miles; Alt. 1,011 feet. Benning. — 66 miles; 
Alt. 829 feet. Mankato.— 70 miles; Alt. 782 feet. (Blue Earth County.) 

The moraine continues west of Waterville to Elysian. Madison Lake 
is on rolling till-plain. Fine lakes are on every hand. The soil of the 
till-plains and the moraines is a splendid type of loam. South of Ben- 
ning the gravelly terraces of the glacial Minnesota River are crossed, 
with outcropping ledges of rock appearing in the bluffs to Mankato. 



THE CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY. 



Minneapolis to St. Paul runs over C, M. & St. P. tracks. (See p. 265.) 

St. Paul, — 10 miles. Newport. — 18 miles from Minneapolis. Inver 
Grove. — 20 miles. Rosemount. — 31 miles. 

From Union Depot, St. Paul, the line skirts the bluffs on the east 
side of the river, St. Peter sandstone with Trenton limestone above out- 
cropping in the bluffs. A flat terrace of Shakopee dolomite (limestone) 
lies along the river to Newport. Crossing the river to Inver Grove the 
railroad climbs to the high bluffs, which are covered with roughly rolling 
red drift morainic hills. Between Inver Grove and Rosemount the old 
valley (preglacial) of the Mississippi is crossed west of Pine Bend. (See 
Chap. XVI.) 

Rosemount to Northfield runs over tracks of C, M. & St. P. Ry. 
(See p. 269.) 

Northfield. — 51 miles from Minneapolis. Dundas. — 54 miles. Fari- 
bault.— 64 miles; Alt. 972 feet. (Rice County.) (Crossing C. G. W. Ry., 
C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 

From Northfield to Faribault the railroad follows the Cannon Val- 
ley. Till-plain borders the valley west, and morainic hills cap the river 
bluffs east. St. Peter sandstone capped by Platteville limestone is ex- 
posed below the drift in the valley sides. South of Dundas an esker 
is crossed in which a gravel pit has been opened. South of this a rolling 
moraine to which the esker is related. A mound of St. Peter sandstone 
is cut through, then glacial outwash plain of valley of Straight River 
is followed to Faribault. 

Medford.— 73 miles; Alt. 1,102 feet. Owatonna.— 80 miles; Alt. 
1,129 feet. (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) (Steele County.) 

From Faribault to Medford the railroad follows the valley of 
Straight River, at times crossing glacial outwash in the large ancient 
valley, and again cutting through moraines which crowd close upon 
the valley at Medford and Owatonna. Tracts of flat till-plain west of 
valley, north and south of Medford. 

Hope.— 89 miles; Alt. 1,260 feet. Ellendale.— 95 miles. Clark 
Grove. — 103 miles. 

From Owatonna south for a short distance a morainic ridge is fol- 
lowed, a part of the moraine which extends to and beyond the State 
line. Straight River occupies an old glacial channel of gravelly and 

305 



306 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

sandy outwash. This outwash channel is crossed three times between 
Owatonna and Ellendale. Straight River flows north, but the ancient 
glacial river flowed south past Blooming Prairie and Austin by the valley 
now occupied by Cedar River. Straight River is crossed north of Hope, 
and south of Hope an outwash channel is crossed that carried glacial 
waters from the edge of the melting glacier eastward into the valley 
now occupied by the Straight-Cedar ancient channel. Ellendale stands 
on the moraine formed at this time. The moraine at Ellendale continues 
south beyond the State line. (See Chap. XXH.) South of Clark Grove 
and extending to Albert Lea is an outwash plain of gravel and sand 
formed after the glacier had melted back from the position at which 
the moraine east of Albert Lea was formed. 

Albert Lea. — 111 miles; Alt. 1,235 feet. (Freeborn County.) (Cross- 
ing C. M. & St. P. Ry., M. & St. L. Ry.) 

Belt undulating till-plain Clark's Grove to Albert Lea. Moraine 
east, and high gravelly plain of outwash west. The narrows connect- 
ing Albert Lea Lakes is crossed, and the clayey bottom of glacial Lake 
Albert Lea. (See Chap. XXIL) 

Glenville. — 126 miles. 

The town is located on the outwash plain of the old channel thai 
extends south from Albert Lea Lakes. (See Chap. XXII.) 

Gordonsville.— 131 miles; Alt. 1,213 feet. 

The outwash plain of gravel and sand continues south from Glen- 
ville and the Albert Lea Lakes. Distinct morainic ridge east. 

Myrtle. — 13 miles from Albert Lea (on Illinois Central Railway) ; 
Alt. 1,254 feet. London.— 19 miles; Alt. 1,199 feet. 

Between Glenville and Myrtle a moraine about 1 mile in width 
marks the halting place of the great Keewatin glacier. Myrtle is on 
a till-plain or ground moraine of this glacier, the eastern edge of the 
deposit made by this glacier, that is, the boundary between the Young 
Gray drift (Keewatin) and the Old Gray drift (Kansan) being about 
half way between Myrtle and London. London is on the plain of the 
Old Gray drift. (See Chap. IV.) About half way between London and 
Lyle is the ancient drainage channel Avhich at one time carried water 
from Faribault, Owatonna, and Austin southward from the edge of the 
melting glacier. This part of the ancient channel is now occupied by 
the Cedar River. 

Conger.— 10 miles from Albert Lea; Alt. 1,290 feet. Walters.— 17 
miles ; Alt. 1,235 feet. 

Passing Albert Lea Lakes a till-plain lies south of Albert Lea city. 
A sandy outwash plain borders the moraine which lies west of Albert 
Lea. This was formed by the waters from the melting ice at the time 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 307 

the moraine was being formed. The railroad crosses the south side of 
this outAvash plain onto the moraine. Conger is at the west edge of 
the moraine. West of Conger a till-plain is crossed and west of the 
till-plain another moraine extends to Walters. West of Walters the 
railroad lies close upon the edge of a sandy moraine to the south and 
east, then crosses the clayey plain of an ancient lake bottom to Bricelyn. 
Bricelyn.— 26 miles; Alt. 1,177 feet. (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) 
Walnut, Swan, Goose, and Rice Lakes remain as remnants of a glacial 
lake which occupied the basin in which the lakes mentioned now lie, and 
through which basin the waters of East Pork of Blue Earth River now 
pass. 

LAKE PARK-JASPER LINE 

Round Lake. — 10 miles from Lake Park, la. ; Alt. 1,559 feet. 

Round Lake is near the inner edge of the great Altamont or outer 
moraine formed on the west side of the Keewatin glacier. The railroad 
crosses this moraine as it enters the State. A group of morainic lakes 
lies east of Round Lake. State Line Lake and Indian Lake are on the 
moraine west of the railroad. 

Worthington. — 21 miles; Alt. 1,585 feet. (Nobles County.) 

Worthington is on the undulating till-plain east of the Altamont 
moraine. East and West Okabena Lakes south and west of the city 
discharge to Lake Ocheeda and westward to the Missouri River. Oaka- 
bena Creek, which is crossed a mile west of Worthington, carries water 
east to the Des Moines River. Worthington is nearly on the crest of 
the Coteau des Prairies. 

Reading.— 27 miles ; Alt. 1,722 feet. Wilmont.— 31 miles; Alt. 1,735 
feet. Linsmore. — 41 miles; Alt. 1,689 feet. 

The Altamont moraine between Reading and Wilmont is separated 
into two belts by an intervening tract of till-plain or ground moraine. 
Reading is on the eastern belt. Wilmont is on the western edge of the 
till-plain. West of Wilmont the western belt of the great moraine is 
crossed. A broad channel of glacial drainage is crossed before Linsmore 
is reached. Linsmore is on the undulating till-plain which borders the 
moraine on the west. This till-plain shows that the ice advanced beyond 
the Altamont moraine, but its edge was not stationary for long as far 
west as Linsmore, as no moraine was deposited. 

Kenneth.— 48 miles; Alt. 1,588 feet. 

About 2 miles west of Linsmore is the western edge of the drift 
deposited by the Keewatin glacier, the Young Gray drift. (See Chap. IV.) 
From the edge of this drift deposit outwash drainage channels lead 
south and west across the plain of Old Gray drift. An outwash plain 



308 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

between Linsmore and Kenneth is crossed by the railroad, this outwash 
leading to several distinct ancient channels to the south, all of whicn 
lead to the valley of Rock River. Kenneth stands on the edge of one 
of these channels. 

Hardwick. — 55 miles; Alt. 1,608 feet. 

Between Kenneth and Hardwick two ancient channels are crossed, 
and two intervening tracts of Old Gray drift. Hardwick is located on 
a ridge of pre-Canibrian rock (the Sioux ({uartzite). (See Chap. X.) 
The Old Gray or Kansan drift probably once covered this rock, but it 
has been removed by erosion of wind and water. 

Trosky.— 64 miles; Alt. 1,705 feet. 

The railroad follows the quartzite ridge for 5 miles north from 
Hardwick, then passes onto the Kansan or Old Gray drift plain. 

Jasper. — 73 miles; Alt. 1,560 feet. 

From Trosky west nearly to Jasper the Kansan or Old Gray drift 
continues. Jasper is in the valley of Split Rock Creek, a deep gorge 
eroded into the hard quartzite rock. The names of the town and the 
creek are appropriate. Jasper is the particular variety of quartzite 
rock here exposed, and the term '* split" fittingly describes the valley. 

Pipestone. — 40 miles from Ellsworth; Alt. 1,725 feet. (Pipestone 
County.) 

A thin sheet of till that borders the Altamont moraine on the west 
extends to the western limits of the city. West of this is the Old Gray 
(Kansan) drift, a flat plain of drift that thinly covers the underlying 
rock. Pipestone is on an "island" of (juartzite rock. Ledges of this 
rock outcrop in the northern part of the city. The railroad crosses the 
western edge of this "island," passing near the outcropping ledges. 

Cazenovia. — 45 miles from Ellsworth. 

On the rolling till-plain outside (west) of the outer or Altamont 
moraine. About 1 mile west of Cazenovia is the margin of the Young 
Gray drift. The undulating plain of the Old Gray drift extends west- 
ward into South Dakota. 

Cresson. — 51 miles. 

Cresson is near the western border of the Young Gray drift. Be- 
tween Cazenovia and Cresson an ancient glacial river course is crossed, 
which is now occupied by Flandreau River. 

Luverne. — 13 miles from Ellsworth; Alt. 1,452 feet. (Rock County.) 
(Crossing C, St. P., M. & 0. Ry.) 

Luverne is located at the west edge of the broad ancient water- 
course which is now occupied by Rock River. West of this ancient chan- 
nel the Old Gray drift is covered with loess. East of Luverne the prairie 
is that of the Old Grav drift. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 309 

Kanaranzi, — 5 miles from Ellsworth ; Alt. 1,505 feet. Ellsworth. — 
532 miles from Chicago ; Alt. 1,445 ft. 

Between Luverne and Kanaranzi three outwash channels are cross- 
ed, all of which lead to the valley of Rock River. Another of these chan- 
nels of glacial drainage is crossed between Kanaranzi and Ellsworth. The 
Old Gray drift plain is intersected by these ancient channels. Ellsworth, 
near the State line, is also near the boundary between the Old Gray 
drift and the Young Gray drift, but is on the former. 

Bruce. — 18 miles from Sioux Falls (on Illinois Central Railway) ; 
Alt. 1,492 feet. Hills.— 20 miles; Alt. 1,451 feet. Steen.— 25 miles; Alt. 
1,485 feet. 

The Illinois Central Railway between Rock Rapids, low^a, and 
Sioux Falls, S. Dak., crosses southern Rock County. The three places 
named are in the district that is covered with loess. This part of the 
State was very thinly covered with drift of the Old or Kansan ice sheet. 
So little drift was deposited that the topography is essentially that of 
a nonglaciated region. (See Chap. IV.) 



310 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

THE MINNEAPOLIS & ST. LOUIS RAILWAY 

St. Paul to Minneapolis runs over N. P. tracks. (See p. 339.) 

Minneapolis. — 10 miles from St. Paul. (Hennepin County.) 

Leaving Minneapolis the M; & St. L. line crosses rolling morainic 
hills and level sandy, alluvial deposits to Cedar Lake, where a sandy 
outwash plain lies between Cedar Lake on the right (west) and Lake of 
the Isles and Lake Calhoun on the left (east). A belt of morainic hills 
lies west of Lake Calhoun. Bass Lake lies at the left (south). St. Louis 
Park is on a gravelly outwash plain, which extends halfway to Hopkins. 

Hopkins. — 20 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 919 feet. (Watertown Line 
see p. 312.) 

Rolling morainic hills about Hopkins. Minnehaha Creek is crossed 
west of St. Louis Park. This is a pretty stream which follows an old 
glacial channel, and carries water from Minne tonka Lake to the Missis- 
sippi River. 

Eden Prairie.— 26 miles ; Alt. 878 feet. 

The rolling morainic hills continue from Hopkins nearly to Eden 
Prairie with many small lakes, and hollows containing muck deposits. 
The town is built on an outwash plain formed when the great moraine 
which has just been crossed, was being deposited by the glacier. This 
plain merges into the high glacial terrace of the Minnesota Valley. The 
smoother and more even character of the gravelly plain, and the lack 
of trees, give the name "prairie" as distinguished from the rolling 
morainic hills, which are naturally wooded. 

Chaska. — 34 miles; Alt. 725 feet. (Carver County.) (Crossing C. 
M. & St. P. Ry.) Carver.— 36 miles; Alt. 720 feet. 

West of Eden Prairie the railroad again crosses the rolling hills 
of the moraine, which here crowds close upon the Minnesota Valley, 
then descends upon the outwash plain east of Chaska to the high terrace 
or ancient floodplain of the glacial Minnesota. 

Merriam.— 39 miles; Alt. 754 feet. (Crossing C, St. P., M. & 0. Ry.) 
Jordan. — 44 miles; Alt. 755 feet. 

After passing Carver the railroad descends further to the alluvial 
river bottom and crosses to Merriam. Merriam stands on a limestone 
terrace cut by the glacial flood waters of the Minnesota. This is the 
Shakopee dolomite, a limestone of Paleozoic age. Fragments of this 
rock lie upon the terrace. (See Chap. X.) From Merriam the railroad 
follows the glacial terrace to Jordan, where it climbs out of the Min- 
nesota Valley by the valley of Sand Creek to the prairie upland. At 
Chaska and Jordan springs issuing from the valley sides, or bursting 
out on the terrace plain, have developed hillside bogs, which have become 
fajnous as mud baths. (See Chap. VIII.) 
ITclcna.— 48 miles; Alt. 8n3 feet. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 311 

Helena is situated in the deep glacial valley of Sand Creek. Out 
from the valley morainic hills with many lakes occur. The valley of 
Sand Creek was eroded when the glacial waters flooded the valley. 

New Prague. — 54 miles ; Alt. 973 feet. Montgomery.— 61 miles ; Alt. 
1,064 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 

At Hilltop south of Helena the moraine merges into rolling till-plain 
which continues south to Montgomery. The soil is generally loam, there 
being considerable silt, and is fine farming land. The hills are beauti- 
fully rolling. A group of morainic lakes north of Montgomery are 
"drained" by Sand Creek. Sand Creek is really not a drainage stream 
at all. It was established by waters from the melting ice which flowed 
away from the glacier between the hills where best it could. The modern 
stream follows the ancient channel, a small pooling stream meandering 
over the broad valley bottom. Water overflows from the lakes by this 
creek, but the land a few rods distant is not drained. 

Kilkenny. — 70 miles; Alt. 1,058 feet. Waterville. — 77 miles; Alt. 
1,010 feet. (Crossing C. G. W. Ey.) 

From Montgomery the railroad runs south through clayey morainic 
hills having a fertile loam soil. Beautiful lakes, large and small, and 
pooling streams carry water between the hills. The "drainage" of the 
region is into the valley of Cannon River, entering Lake Tetonka west 
of Waterville and discharging east into Lake Sakata. Waterville is on 
the rolling moraine just south of the Cannon Valley. The beautiful 
morainic topography continues south to Palmer and Waseca. The lakes 
between Waterville and Palmer "drain" northward. Lake Elysrian dis- 
charges its overflow waters westward by the LeSueur and the Blue 
Earth to the Minnesota at Mankato. The lakes west and northwest of 
Waterville "drain" eastward by the Cannon. 

Palmer.— 81 miles; Alt. 1,147 feet. Waseca.— 88 miles; Alt. 1,150 
feet. (Waseca County.) (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry.) 

Waseca is located at the western edge of the moraine. A beautiful 
group of morainic lakes lies east, north, and south. The "drainage" 
of these lakes is in part eastward to Straight River, and in part west- 
ward to the LeSueur. There is no definite "divide" between these 
lakes, nor between these and those north of Palmer, which discharge to 
the Cannon. 

Otisco.— 94 miles; Alt. 1,146 feet. Richland.— 100 miles; Alt. 1.182 
feet. Hartland.— 106 miles; Alt. 1,252 feet. Manchester.— 112 miles; 
Alt. 1,282 feet. 

From Waseca to Albert Lea the railroad runs nearly south, Otisco 
and Richland being at the junction of the moraine on the east and the till- 
plain on the west. Between Richland and Albert Lea alternating belts 
of terminal moraine and gently rolling till-plain are crossed. Richland, 



312 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Hartland, and Manchester each stand on till-plain, but east of each of 
these places the rolling terminal moraines are seen. 

The great moraine which is traversed by the Minneapolis and St. 
Louis Railway from Minneapolis to Albert Lea was formed at the 
eastern edge of the great Keewatin glacier. (See Chap. IV.) To the 
work done by this great ice-plow is due much of the fertility as well as 
the topography of a large area of central and southern Minnesota. 

Albert Lea.— 119 miles; Alt. 1,227 feet. (Crossing C, M, & St. P. 
Ry. and C. R. I. & P. Ry.) 

Moraine north of city, and gravelly outwash plain. City mostly 
built on sediments of glacial Lake Albert Lea. Rolling morainic hills 
south. (See Chap. XXIL) 

Twin Lakes.— 126 miles; Alt. 1,256 feet. 

The town is named from Upper and Lower Twin Lakes, which arc 
located on the west, on the gently rolling till-plain. The railroad runs 
on the boundary between the moraine on the east and the till-plain on 
the west from Albert Lea to the State line at Emmons. 

Emmons.— 132 miles ; Alt. 1,281 feet. 

Bear Lake is on the west, on the edge of a flat, sandy, and gravelly 
outwash plain. State Line Lake lies among the morainic hills east of 
the railroad near the State line. 

THE WATERTOWN AND ABERDEEN LINE 

Minnetonka Mills.— 23 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 936 feet. Deep- 
haven.— 27 miles ; Alt. 935 feet. Excelsior.— 30 miles ; Alt. 946 feet. 

Terminal moraine all the way, with many small morainic lakes and 
muck-bottomed hollows. Hills tree covered. Excelsior is on southern 
arm of Minnetonka Lake. 

Victoria.— 36 miles; Alt. 964 feet. Waconia.— 43 miles; Alt. 984 
feet. Young America. — 51 miles ; Alt. 993 feet. 

Morainic hills and lakes, with intervening tracts of muck. The 
region is undrained so far as the development of streams is concerned. 
The soil is clayey in character and very productive. There are many 
fine fruit, vegetable, and dairy farms. 

Norwood.— 52 miles; Alt. 976 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 
Hamburg.— 55 miles; Alt. 999 feet. Green Isle.— 60 miles; Alt. 999 
feet. Arlington. — 66 miles; Alt. 995 feet. Gaylord. — 74 miles; Alt. 
998 feet. (Sibley County.) 

Gently rolling ground moraine or till-plain, with many lakes, be- 
coming more broadly rolling and undulating west. Lake Erin near 
Green Isle and Lake Titlow near Gaylord are large fine lakes. New 
Auburn Lakes, north and west of Arlington, comprise an interesting 
chain. The positions of these lakes indicate that they lie in a partially 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 318 

filled valley, that is, a valley that had been cut into the old Kansan 
drift, and partially filled by the deposits of the later Keewatin glacier-. 
These lakes overflow by High Island Creek, which is crossed near Arling- 
ton, to the Minnesota. Buffalo Creek passes within a few rods of this 
chain of lakes, carrying water to the Mississippi by way of the Crow, 
above Anoka. 

Winthrop. — 81 miles ; Alt. 1,015 feet. (For Line to Storm Lake, see 
p. 314.) Gibbon.— 89 miles; Alt. 1,048 feet. Fairfax.— 99 miles; Alt. 
1,041 feet. Franklin.— 107 miles ; Alt. 1,004 feet. 

Broadly rolling till-plain or ground moraine, with occasional lakes. 
A narrow morainic belt is crossed between Gibbon and Fairfax and 
another east of Franklin. These moraines were deposited on the west 
side of the Keewatin glacier, or on the opposite edge of the great ice 
lobe or glacier from the great moraine that extends from Minneapolis 
to Albert Lea. Franklin is located on the rolling prairie overlooking 
the deep valley of the Minnesota. West of Franklin the railroad de- 
scends to the high terrace or ancient floodplain of the glacial Minne- 
sota River. 

Morton.— 112 miles ; Alt. 840 feet. 

Here is seen the eroded and partially decomposed granite rocks, 
the ancient floor of the Continent, into which the glacial Minnesota 
cut its valley to a depth of 125 to 150 feet. West of Morton the river 
is crossed, the railroad continuing on the granite valley bottom to North 
Redwood. The valley is alluvium deposited by overflow of the modern 
river, but granite knobs stand out in picturesque forms. The great 
valley was, at one time, crowded by the rushing waters that came from 
the melting ice, and thus the deep and broad valley was carved into 
the hard rock. Deep channels, some of them gorge-like in character, 
have been eroded by tributary streams plunging down the sides of the 
valley. (See Chap. X.) 

North Redwood.— 118 miles; Alt. 855 feet. 

North Redwood is on the broad valley bottom of the Minnesota 
where Redwood River enters the Minnesota. The Redwood has cut a deep 
gorge into the granitic rocks. Redwood River descends 100 feet within 
a distance of a mile in a succession of picturesque cascades and rapids. 
Granitic cliffs tower on either side 100 to 150 feet. This gorge extends 
1% miles before it opens into the broad bottom land of the Minnesota 
Valley. 

Delhi.— 124 miles; Alt. 1,022 feet. 

Delhi is on ground moraine or till-plain, overlooking the broad val- 
ley of the Minnesota. 

Belview.— 130 miles ; Alt. 1,071 feet. 

A small terminal moraine lies just north of Belview, surrounded by 



314 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

till-plain. Small lakes of inorainic type south. 

Echo.— 135 miles; Alt. 1,080 feet. Wood Lake.— 141 miles; Alt. 
1,059 feet. 

Undulating or gently rolling till-plain with occasional lakes occupy- 
ing generally broad flat depressions. 

Hanley Falls. — 146 miles; Alt. 1,047 feet. (Crossing Great Northern 
Railway. ) 

Yellow Medicine River here meanders across the till-plain in north- 
easterly direction to the Minnesota. 

Hazel Run. — 152 miles ; Alt. 1,057 feet. Clarkfield. — 151 miles ; Alt. 
1,087 feet. Boyd.— 164 miles; Alt. 1,050 feet. 

From Hanley Falls to Boyd the railroad runs on or parallel with 
a narrow moraine. Gently rolling till-plain extends away into the 
distance. 

Dawson.— 173 miles; Alt. 1,054 feet. Madison.— 182 miles; Alt. 
1,095 feet. (Lac Qui Parle County.) 

Till-plain Boyd to Madison. A moraine extends parallel with the 
railroad on the left (southwest). Cross Lac Qui Parle River approach- 
ing Dawson. Madison is at the north side of a narrow moraine, and 
a larger moraine lies a mile north. 

Marietta.— 193 miles; Alt. 1,128 feet. 

Between Madison and Marietta 4 definite moraines or morainic 
belts are crossed, wuth intervening tracts of undulating till-plain. A 
glacial channel fully 1 mile in width is crossed 3 miles east of Marietta, 
this channel extending in a north-northwest south-southeast direction be- 
tween parallel terminal moraines. This was a channel of glacial drainage 
at the time when the ice of the Keewatin glacier had its western edge 
flanking the highland of the Coteau des Prairies, and the southern end 
of the glacier was far south toward the present city of Des Moines. 

STORM LAKE LINE 

Lafayette. — 88 miles; Alt. 1,010 feet. Klossner.— 94 miles; Alt. 
1,006 feet. New Ulm.— 100 miles; Alt. 833 feet. (Brown County.) 

From Winthrop south to Lafayette gently rolling till-plain, then 
two belts of terminal moraine ai'e crossed between Lafayette and 
Klossner. Turning away from this moraine the railroad swings into the 
valley of the Minnesota at New Ulm. New Ulm is built on terraces 
of glacial Minnesota River. (See Chap. XV.) After crossing Cotton- 
wood River south of New Ulm, Old Redstone can be seen a mile to the 
east. (See Chap. XT.) 

Searles.— 106 miles; Alt. 989 feet. Hanska.— 113 miles; Alt. 1,007 
feet. LaSalle.— 119 miles; Alt. 1,028 feet. 

After crossing the Minnesota the Cottonwood is crossed a little 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR W7A'D0W 315 

above its mouth, then rolling till-plain is crossed to Searles and Hanska 
and beyond. The deep valley of the Little Cottonwood is crossed north 
of Searles. On this plain are numerous large and small lakes. West 
of Hanska is Lake Hanska which lies in a long channel extending from 
the Cottonwood Valley to that of the Watonwan at Madelia. This 
ancient channel is crossed a mile north of LaSalle. Bordering this chan- 
nel on the north is a terminal moraine which marks the position of 
the edge of the ice at the time when this channel was being formed. It 
was by this channel the ice waters were carried to the Minnesota at the 
present Big Bend at Mankato. South of LaSalle two moraines and two 
other glacial channels are crossed, marking two other positions of the 
edge of the ice and two channels of discharge of the ice waters, all lead- 
ing eastward via the valley of the Watonwan. The North Branch of 
the North Fork and the South Branch of the North Fork of Watonwan 
River occupy the two channels. 

St. James. — 126 miles; Alt. 1,076 feet. (Watonwan County.) 
(Crossing C, St. P., M. & 0. Ry.) Ormsby.— 137 miles; Alt. 1,201 feet. 

South of the moraines aijd ancient channels referred to above a 
till-plain is crossed. St. James is on a moraine that extends in a north- 
west and southeast direction for many miles. South a till-plain extends 
beyond Ormsby. South Fork Watonwan River is crossed north of 
Ormsby. 

Monterey.— 143 miles; Alt. 1,233 feet. (Crossing C. & N. W. Ry. 
north.) 

Monterey is on another moraine which lies generally parallel with 
the one on which St. James is located. West of Ormsby. and Monterey 
is the West Chain of Lakes. (See Chap. XXIII.) 

Sherburne.— 150 miles; Alt. 1,288 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. 

Ry.) 

Sherburne is on a gently rolling till-plain on which are many lakes. 
South 2 miles is another moraine, in general parallel with those at 
Monterey and St. James, and south and west of this moraine is a broad, 
ancient channel of glacial drainage now" occupied by the East Fork of 
Des Moines River. 

DunnelL— 157 miles; Alt. 1,310 feet. 

Three small moraines lie southeast of Dunnell, with intervening 
tracts of till-plain or ground moraine. From Dunnell south to the State 
line the railroad crosses a broad till-plain. This is bordered on the west 
by another moraine which extends continuously in a northwesterly di- 
rection past Windom, Tracy, and Gary across the South Dakota State 
line, and across South Dakota into and across North Dakota into Canada. 
It extends southeast into low^a. It is bordered on the west by the great 
ancient glacial channel which is now occupied by Des Moines River. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 

GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY 

St. Paul.— miles; Alt. 706 feet. (Ramsey County.) 

Leaving Union Depot the railroad turns away from the valley of 
the Mississippi, following a preglacial valley which was partially filled 
with drift. Passing from this old valley a gravelly outwash plain of 
red drift is crossed. Opposite the State Fair Grounds a moraine of red 
drift is crossed. The State Agricultural College buildings, seen to the 
north, are on gray drift hills, the gray drift here overlapping upon the 
earlier red drift. The red drift outwash plain is overlaid by an outwash 
of gray drift to the east and north of the Fair Grounds. The gray drift 
was deposited over the red by the later Keewatin ice sheet. (See Chap. 
IV.) The boundary marking the limit of the later ice invasion is through 
St. Anthony Park and north of Prospect Park, Minneapolis. The red 
drift moraine is more roughly rolling and contains more "hardheads" 
or boulders of granite and quartzite. The hills in Prospect Park are red 
drift, and those in the southern part of St. Anthony Park. Immediately 
north of Prospect Park and the northern and western part of St. Anthony 
Park the gray drift topography is less rolling. To the west the railroad 
crosses peat and sand dune tracts and presently enters upon the glacial 
sand and gravel terraces of the Mississippi. The gorge of the Missis- 
sippi is crossed south of St. Anthony Falls. 

Minneapolis. — 10 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 815 feet. (Hennepin 
County.) (For Wilhnar-Breckenridge Line see p. 320.) 

The railroad crosses the deep gorge of the Mississippi immediately 
below St. Anthony Falls, a fine view of which is obtained from the 
north window. Trenton limestone outcrops in the sides of the gorge, 
with St. Peter sandstone below. West of Minneapolis the railroad 
crosses through morainic hills of gray drift, and enters upon the sandy 
outwash plain approaching Robbinsdale. 

Robbinsdale.— 17 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 884 feet. 

Morainic hills, clayey in character from Minneapolis westward. 
Robbinsdale on edge of outwash plain which lies west of the Mississippi 
River and extends north beyond Anoka. The railroad crosses this plain 
to Osseo. 

Osseo.— 24 miles ; Alt. 89.3 feet. Rogers.— 33 miles ; Alt. 965 feet. 

Leave outwash plain west of Osseo, and cross moraine 4 miles. 
Rogers on rolling till-plain. 

316 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 317 

Moiiticello.— 47 miles; Alt. 936 feet. 

Two miles west of Rogers cross Crow River which meanders on a 
flat plain of outwash 1 mile wide. This broad, deep valley was cut 
through the great moraine between Dayton on the Mississippi and 
Rockford and Delano by a stream which flowed in the opposite 
direction from that in which the Crow now flows. This was the glacial 
Upper St. Croix. (See Chap. XVII.) A till-plain 6 miles, then cross 
another moraine 3 miles, entering upon the great outwash plain that 
borders the Mississippi River. 

Enfield. — 55 miles ; Alt. 1,016 feet. Clearwater. — 62 miles ; Alt. 
963 feet. The railroad lies close to the Mississippi River on outwash 
plain. Enfield is on the north end of a moraine which broadens south- 
ward and may be seen bordering the outw^ash plain to the west for 
several miles. Clearwater is on the outwash plain which the railroad 
follows to St. Cloud, except a rolling till-plain is crossed 2 miles west 
of Clearwater. This till-plain is of gray (Keewatin) drift. The moraine 
to the west which can be seen from the west (left) window is red (Pa- 
trician) drift. 

St. Cloud. — 75 miles; Alt. 1,040 feet. (Stearns County.) (Crossing 
Soo Line.) 

Important granite quarries are operated here. This granite rock is 
the ancient Archaean formation, the oldest rock of the earth, the original 
back-bone of the continent. The ice sheets passed over these rocks and 
broke off and removed fragments, and polished the hard surface. Large 
and small fragments torn from these ledges are scattered on and in 
the drift deposits to the southward. (See Chap. X & XXIV.) 

St. Joseph. — 82 miles; Alt. 1,088 feet. On the outwash plain which 
borders the Mississippi River. A small clayey moraine north which forms 
an ' 'island " in the sandy plain. 

Avon. — 90 miles. 

Railroad follows glacial floodplain of Watab River. Sandy terminal 
moraine to the south (left) window. 

Albany.— 96 miles; Alt. 1,201 feet. Freeport.— 103 miles; Alt. 
1,241 feet. 

Cross hilly, sandy moraine 6 miles to Albany. Rolling till-plain at 
Albany and 3 miles west of Freeport. Boundary between red (Patrician) 
drift and gray (Keewatin) drift, at Albany. 

Melrose.— 109 miles ; Alt. 1,211 feet. 

Outwash plain. Rolling till-plain north; clayey moraine south. 

Sauk Center.— 117 miles; Alt. 1,254 feet. 

Crossing Morris branch N. P. Ry. on outwash plain. Moraine west 
and north. Sauk Lake in old glacial channel in which Sauk River now 



318 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

meanders. West of Sauk Center cross moraine, then again cross out- 
wash channel in which Sauk River flows. The ancient channel was cut 
through the moraine by the Avaters from the melting ice. 

West Union.— 125 miles; Alt. 1,337 feet. 

Railroad runs on moraine 1 mile wide to Osakis. 

Osakis.— 130 miles; Alt. 1,345 feet. 

On Osakis Lake. Rolling till-plain to Nelson. 

Alexandria. — 142 miles; Alt. 1,389 feet. (Douglas County.) Gar- 
field. — 148 miles. Brandon. — 154 miles; Alt. 1,389 feet. Evansville. — 
159 miles; Alt. 1,354 feet. Ashby.— 168 miles; Alt. 1,275 feet. Dalton.— 
176 miles; Alt. 1,352 feet. 

West of Nelson cross sandy moraine with morainic lakes 4 miles to 
crossing Soo Line. Alexandria on sandy undulating outwash plain on 
which are many beautiful lakes. This is a beautiful group of lakes and 
the sandy plain makes fine shores and splendid outing and camping 
sites. West of Alexandria the railroad passes onto the great Fergus 
Falls moraine and continues amid the hills and lakps of this moraine 
45 miles to Fergus Falls. 

This is a trip uni(|ue in its picturesque scenery. No journey of 
like distance in Minnesota or the United States, or indeed, probably in 
the world, carries the traveller through a more typical region of terminal 
morainic topography. Hundreds of lakes with every variety of rolling 
knob-like hills, the so-called '^pots and kettles" of every size. Tiny 
streams having no definite course or direction of flow give the impression 
of the wildest confusion of topographic order. This is the ''Lake Park 
Region" of Minnesota. Here is the field where the titanic struggle 
between glacial cold represented by advancing ice, struggled against the 
contending warmth, which finally vanquished the great Keewatin lobe 
of the continental ice sheet. On this geologically historic battle ground, 
the struggle between heat and cold left its tremendous record. How 
long the struggle lasted we do not know, but the countless millions of 
tons of earth, — boulders, gravel, clay, and sand, — that were dumped 
in the wildest confusion as the great ice mass advanced and was melted, 
tell of the vastness of the great work done during this closing epoch 
of the Ice Age. 

Fergus Falls.— 187 miles; Alt. 1,196 feet. (Crossing N. P. Ry.) 
(Otter Tail County.) 

The moraine just passed through was named for the city that stands 
amidst its hills. An outwash plain lies immediately east, formed w^hen 
the great moraine was being deposited. The moraine west is clayey in 
character. Northeast of the city is a sandy moraine about 7 miles 
in length which forms an "island" surrounded by outwash sand. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 319 

Across the ancient channel that lies east of the island the Otter 
Tail or Red River meanders, passing through the city to the westward, 
cutting through the moraine. This river drains Height of Land Lake 
in Becker County, and pools its meandering course through outwash 
plains and lakes, finally entering upon the plain of the bottom of Lake 
Agassiz where it joins the Bois des Sioux and becomes the Red River 
of the North. 

It is interesting to observe that an ancient watercourse, which is 
crossed by the railroad at Carlisle 8 miles west, extends south for more 
than 40 miles, varying in width from one-half mile to a mile. The Otter 
Tail or Red enters this ancient channel 3 miles west of Fergus Falls 
and flows over its bottom about 4 miles, after being joined by Pelican 
River, then turns abruptly west and crosses the bottom of Lake Agassiz. 
A few rods south of the point in the ancient channel where the Otter 
Tail turns westward the Mustinka River takes its beginning. An ira 
perceptible "divide" on the flat bottom of this ancient channel sepa- 
rates the Mustinka from the Otter Tail or Red. The Mustinka follows 
this ancient channel southward about 24 miles, then turns abruptly 
westward upon the bottom of Lake Agassiz and enters Lake Traverse 
from the north. ^ 

Carlisle.— 195 miles; Alt. 1,280 feet. Rothsay.— 204 miles; Alt. 
1,194 feet. 

Rothsay is near the west side of the moraine and is about 2 miles 
east of the highest or Herman Beach of Lake Agassiz. 

Lawndale. — 210 miles; Alt. 1,074 feet. The railroad crosses the 
upper Herman Beach 3 miles west of Rothsay, then passes onto the 
lower Herman Beach approaching Lawndale. (See Chap. XIII.) 

Barnesville.— 218 miles; Alt. 1,025 feet. (Winnipeg Line p. 328.) 

Barnesville is on the Tintah Beach. A belt of gently undulating 
plain crossed at Barnesville is a moraine which was deposited in Lake 
Agassiz and leveled by its waves. One and two miles west of Barnesville, 
the Campbell and McCauleyville Beaches are crossed. 

Baker.— 226 miles ; Alt. 939 feet. Sabin.— 232 miles ; Alt. 930 fee+. 

From Barnesville to Baker is a sandy plain of the ancient Lake 
Agassiz bottom. From Baker to Moorhead is the fine lacustrine silt 
of the bottom of Lake Agassiz. Sabin is on a narrow belt of undulat- 
ing topography which represents a leveled moraine deposited in the 
waters of Lake Agassiz. 

Moorhead.— 241 miles; Alt. 904 feet. (Clay County.) 

At the time of the formation of the Herman Beach the water of 
Lake Agassiz was about 200 feet deep where Moorhead is now. The 
soil on this axial portion of the ancient lake bottom is that of the finest 



320 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

water-assorted sediments, and is exceedingly fine-grained. The heaviest 
of these soils have been classified by the U. S. Bureau of Soils as Fargo 
clay, and pronounced the finest in texture known to the Bureau labora- 
tories at the time the soil survey was made. 

For Great Northern Lines in North Dakota, see ''The Story of the 
Prairies," Willard, page 326. 

WILLMAR-BRECKENRIDGE LINE 

Wayzata. — 24 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 938 feet. Long Lake. — 27 
miles. (For Hutchinson Line see p. 333.) Maple Plain. — 31 miles; Alt. 
1,014 feet. Delano.— 38 miles; Alt. 947 feet. 

Wayzata is at east end of Minnetonka Lake amongst morainic hills. 
Typical terminal moraine Wayzata to Maple Plain. Rolling till-plain 
west. Cross Crow River at Delano amid morainic hills. 

The large valley now occupied by Crow River was made by the 
glacial St. Croix River when that stream flowed in the opposite direc- 
tion to that in which the Crow now flows. The glacial St. Croix entered 
the valley of the old Mississippi where Delano is now. The Crow above 
Delano follows the old course of the Mississippi. After the last glacier 
had melted and the Mississippi had become established in its present 
course the Crow took the old channel of the St. Croix from Delano to 
the Mississippi at Dayton. 

Montrose.— 45 miles; Alt. 984 feet. Waverly.— 48 miles; Alt. 1,000 
feet. Howard Lake. — 53 miles; Alt. 1,050 feet. 

Morainic hills, with many small lakes and basins. Outwash plain 
north of Montrose. Howard Lake to Cokato rolling till-plain. 

Cokato.— 59 miles; Alt. 1,055 feet. Dassel.— 65 miles; Alt. 1,089 
feet. Darwin.— 70 miles; Alt. 1,135 feet. 

Cokato to Darwin typical morainic hills, with many small lakes. 

Litchfield.— 76 miles; Alt. 1,133 feet. (Meeker County.) 

Outwash plain Darwin to Litchfield and Grove City. North of 
Litchfield 4 miles is a glacial lake bed about 6 by 12 miles in extent. 

Atwater.— 89 miles; Alt. 1,221 feet. Kandiyohi.— 96 miles; Alt. 
1,227 feet. Willmar.— 102 miles; Alt. 1,133 feet. (Kandiyohi County.) 

Ancient glacial I'iver channels east of Grove City and Atwater. 
Moraine west to Kandiyohi. Then rolling till-plain to Willmar. Pass 
Foot Lake along south shore. Moraine north with typical group of 
morainic lakes. 

Pennock.— 109 miles; Alt. 1,126 feet. Kerkhoven.— 116 miles; Alt. 
1,113 feet. Murdock.— 120 miles; Alt. 1,092 feet. DeGraff.— 125 miles; 
Alt. 1,064 feet. Benson.— 132 miles; Alt. 1,050 feet. (Swift County.) 
(Watertown-Huron Line see p. 335.) 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 321 

Rolling till-plain Willmar to Benson. Hills of the great Fergus 
Falls moraine 2 to 4 miles north. Benson is on a broad outwash plain 
which is traversed by Chippewa River. This - outwash plain extends 
north 20 miles and has a width of 2 to 15 miles. It was formed by the 
glacial waters flowing away from the melting ice at the time of the 
formation of the bordering moraines. 

Clontarf.— 140 miles; Alt. 1,048 feet. Hancock.— 148 miles; Alt. 
1,152 feet. Morris. — 157 miles; Alt. 1,140 feet. (Stevens County.) 

Outwash plain extends nearly to Hancock. Hancock is on the 
terminal moraine which lies between the Chippewa Valley outwash plain 
and the outwash of the Pomme de Terre Yalley. The latter is crossed 
east of Morris. The Pomme de Terre was a large glacial river which 
carried waters from the melting ice sheet from the vicinity of Fergus 
Falls almost due south nearly 80 miles to the glacial River Warren. (See 
Chap. XV.) 

Donnelly. — 165 miles ; Alt. 1,129 feet. Moose Island. — 171 miles ; 
Alt. 1,090 feet. 

On rolling till-plain. Here is the Continental Divide which separates 
the waters tributary to the Red River of the North and Hudson Bay 
from the Minnesota and the Gulf of Mexico. This is the continental 
highland that hemmed in the waters of glacial Lake Agassiz. (See 
Chapters XII & XIII.) 

Herman. — 176 miles; Alt. 1,074 feet. Norcross. — 181 miles ; Alt. 
1,043 feet. Tintah.— 192 miles; Alt. 1,001 feet. Campbell.— 199 miles: 
Alt. 988 feet. Doran.— 207 miles ; Alt. 978 feet. 

Herman is on the outer margin of the bottom of glacial Lake Agassiz. 
Two miles west of Herman is the Herman Beach, the highest shore-line 
of Lake Agassiz. 

The Norcross Beach lies about 3 miles west of the Herman Beach, 
a tract of wave-washed sandy lake bottom lying between. From Nor- 
cross to Tintah is the flat plain of the bottom of Lake Agassiz. Near 
Tintah, 1 and 2 miles east, are 2 Tintah Beaches separated by a tract 
of wave-washed sand. Seven miles farther across the flat wave-w^ashed 
till-plain is Campbell located on the Campbell Beach. Eight miles 
farther is Doran, on the McCauleyville Beach. The McCauleyville Beach 
marks the lowest level of Lake Agassiz while its waters outflowed south- 
ward by the River Warren. (See Chaps. XII & XIV.) 

Breckenridge.— 214 miles; Alt. 966 feet. (Wilkin County.) 

From Doran to Breckenridge the plain is that of the fine lacustrine 
silt of the ancient lake bottom. The elevation of Herman is 1,074 feet; 
that of Breckenridge is 966 feet. Thus the water of Lake Agassiz at 
Breckenridge was more than 100 feet deep at the time when the shore 



322 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

line of the lake was at its highest level, that of the Herman Beach. 
(For Geology from a Car Window in North Dakota see "The Story of 
the Prairies," Willard, p. 326-328.) 

BRECKENRIDGE-MOORHEAD LINE 

Kent.— 228 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 947 feet. Wolverton.— 237 
miles ; Alt. 934 feet. Comstock.— 244 miles ; Alt. 925 feet. Moorhead.— 
260 miles; Alt. 904 feet. (Clay County.) 

The railroad from Breckenridge to Moorhead crosses into North 
Dakota a distance of 6 miles, then follows the' axis of the bed of the 
ancient Lake Agassiz from 1 to 3 miles east of the Red River of the 
North northward to Moorhead. The journey from Breckenridge to 
Moorhead is in most marked contrast with a journey from St. Paul to 
Breckenridge. Contrast in particular the scenery from Alexandria to 
Fergus Falls. (P. 318.) The two districts each owe their characteristics 
of surface to the great ice sheet. Both landscapes are young — they are 
today essentially as they were left after the great ice sheet melted. The 
Red River Valley is a nearly level plain whose surface owes its form to 
the work of the water which came from the melting ice sheet. The 
Lake Park Region owes its rough and tumultuous topography to the 
dumping of the earth burden of the glacier directly from the melting 
ice. From Breckenridge to Moorhead the railroad traverses the low 
axial portion of the floor of the ancient lake bottom. Here were de- 
posited the finer sediments which were washed and assorted and laid 
down systematically in comparatively still water. The towns and vil- 
lages along the line are primary shipping points for an important part 
of the world 's bread supply. 

MOORHEAD-CROOKSTON LINE 

Kragnes. — 9 miles from Moorhead; Alt. 892 feet. Georgetown. — 15 
miles. Perley.— 22 miles; Alt. 877 feet. Hendrum.— 28 miles; Alt. 875 
feet. Halstad.— 34 miles ; Alt. 870 feet. Shelley.— 42 miles. Nelsville.— 
46 miles. Climax. — 52 miles. Eldred. — 58 miles. Crookston. — 68 miles; 
Alt. 871 feet. (Polk County.) 

The railroad runs througliout the distance to Crookston mostly with- 
in 1 to 2 miles of the Red River of the North. The plain is the flat floor 
of the axial portion of the bottom of Lake Agassiz. The soil is possessed 
of great fertility, and the region has long been famous for its hard 
wheat. The landscape is like the surface of the sea for evenness. Vision 
is limited by the curvature of the earth. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 323 

DULUTH LINE 

St. Paul to Minneapolis, see p. 316. Fridley. — 19 miles from St. 
Paul; Alt. 847 feet. Coon Creek.— 23 miles; Alt. 873 feet. Andover.— 
29 miles ; Alt. 889 feet. 

Passing to the east side of the Misssisippi after leaving the station 
at Minneapolis, the railroad follows the Mississippi across a sandy plain 
to Fridley and Coon Creek, the sandy plain becoming more broad at 
Andover. 

Bethel.— 41 miles ; Alt. 931 feet. Isanti.— 47 miles ; Alt. 939 feet. 

Extending northward is the largest sand-plain in Minnesota. Many 
lakes occupy depressions in the plain. The sand was probably derived 
from sandstone formations to the north and east, and was ground up by 
the great ice sheets. With the melting of the ice the sand was thrown 
down and was carried by the winds and widely spread. The sand was 
carried over lands that are naturally clayey in character, and thus the 
sandy plain appears larger than it really is. Much land over which a 
surface veneer of sand has been deposited is underlaid with clay and 
the soil is therefore of good quality. There are some tracts of active 
dune sand. 

Cambridge. — 53 miles; Alt. 964 feet. (Isanti County.) Grandy. — 
57 miles ; Alt. 934 feet. Stanchfield.— 59 miles ; Alt. 945 feet. 

East of Isanti and Cambridge, and extending north by Grandy and 
Stanchfield low ranges of morainic hills alternate with tracts of undu- 
lating ground moraine or till-plain. The water-table is near enough to 
the surface to give good support to growing crops even where sand has 
been blown over the surface. At Cambridge and Isanti Rum River 
meanders over the plain in a deep valley. (See Chap. XVI.) It carries 
water from Mille Lacs Lake. 

Braham. — 63 miles; Alt. 956 feet. Grasston. — 69 miles; Alt. 961 
feet. Henriette.— 74 miles; Alt. 996 feet. 

Braham is on the boundary between the gray drift (south) and the 
red drift (north). When the ice of the Keewatin glacier covered the 
region south of Braham the Mississippi River had its course around the 
edge of the glacier from St. Cloud, north of Princeton, near Braham and 
Grasston, to Pine City and the St. Croix. (See Chap. XVII.) Grass 
Lake, now a clayey plain, was a lake when the ice waters from the 
melting glacier were here. An outwash sandy plain is crossed by the 
Snake east of Grasston. Pokegama Lake lies in a long trough north of 
this, extending to a moraine at its north end. The lake trough was 
probably formed by a glacial river which came from the melting ice 
to the north when the moraine was being formed. The flat marshy 
tract south of Brook Park was a lake during the time when the melting 



324 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

ice was flooding its waters here, and the moraine to the south acted as 
a dam, as it still does, preventing the drainage of the swamp. 

Brook Park.— 79 miles; Alt. 1,030 feet. Hinckley.— 88 miles; Alt. 
1,032 feet. (Crossing N. P. Ry.) Sandstone.— 97 miles; Alt. 1,082 feet. 
Askov.— 103 miles; Alt. 1,163 feet. Bruno.— Ill miles; Alt. 1,154 feet. 

Swampy flat till-plain between Brook Park and Hinckley. About 
Hinckley gently undulating till-plain. South of Sandstone a narrow 
moraine is crossed, and this continues parallel with the railroad to 
Bruno. Another larger moraine lies east parallel with the railroad 
beyond Bruno. Kettle River is crossed near Sandstone, a broad and 
deep valley formed by the waters of glacial St. Louis River, which at 
one time passed down this valley to the Mississippi. (See Chap. XX.) 
Sandstone of Keeweenawan age outcrops in the side of Kettle Valley at 
Sandstone, and is extensively quarried. 

Kerrick. — 117 miles; Alt. 1,183 feet. Nickerson. — 123 miles; Alt. 
1,161 feet. 

Swamp and undulating till-plain about Bruno. A moraine is crossed 
between Bruno and Kerrick, and outwash channels are crossed both 
north and south of the moraine. A swampy outwash channel also lies 
east of and parallel with the railroad. A moraine is seen east of this 
swampy channel. Willow Creek crosses the outwash at Kerrick. Nick- 
erson is in the midst of rolling morainic hills. North from Kerrick the 
great moraine that was formed by the Labradorian glacier around the 
head of Lake Superior is crossed. 

Holyoke.— 130 miles; Alt. 1,039 feet. 

The highest beach of glacial Lake Duluth is crossed a little south 
of Holyoke. This highest shore-line of the ancient lake is 400 feet higher 
than the present level of the lake. Above this highest beach the railroad 
crosses a sandy plain which was tlie bottom of a pond of ice water that 
gathered in front of the ice and behind the moraine, and became a 
temporary lake and received the sand deposits. 

Pour miles east of Holyoke the railroad crosses the State line into 
Wisconsin. Its course winds over the flat plain of clayey deposits of 
glacial Lake Duluth, the Superior red clay, to the city of Superior. 
The St. Louis River is crossed to the city of Duluth. 

DULUTH-CROOKSTON LINE 

Carlton.— 35 miles from Duluth; Alt. 1,084 feet. (Carlton County.) 

The railroad runs via Superior across the ancient bottom of Lake 

Duluth. The plain is that of the Superior red clay. Before reaching 

Carlton a leveled moraine is crossed which was deposited in the waters 

of Lake Duluth. The St. Louis River has cut an opening through the 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 325 

ancient beach of the lake, and through this opening the railroad ap- 
proaches Carlton. The great moraine which lies all around the west 
end of Lake Superior was cut through at Carlton by the glacial flood- 
waters of the St. Louis River. In this passage through the moraine is 
now the city of Carlton, the river, and the railroads, Pre-Cambrian 
rocks are exposed in high embossments. These were overridden by the 
ice sheets and their surfaces smoothed and polished. 

Scanlon. — 38 miles; Alt. 1,146 feet. Cloquet. — 41 miles; Alt. 1,195 
feet. 

A gravelly outwash was made at Scanlon by the glacial floodwaters 
of St. Louis River. Hard knobs and promontories of pre-Cambrian 
rocks give a picturesque appearance to the valley, Carlton to Cloquet. 
These outcropping ledges show many smooth surfaces polished by the 
ice. Glacial striae on these smoothed surfaces show the direction of ice 
movement. Their general trend is north of west, showing that the 
Labradorian glacier moved out westward through the basin of Lake 
Superior. When the edge of the glacier Avas at Carlton the St. Louis 
River was turned southward along the edge of the ice. It was then 
that the great gravelly outwash plain from Scanlon southwest to Iverson 
and Atkinson was formed. At this time the waters of the St. Louis 
flowed past Moose Lake and down the Kettle River valley to the St. 
Croix. (See Chap. XX.) 

Draco.— 49 miles; Alt. 1,215 feet. Brookston.— 58 miles; Alt. 1,229 
feet. 

A hilly moraine 2 miles in width is cut through by the river at 
Draco. West of this is rolling till-plain. Three miles west of Brevator, 
another moraine is entered upon. West of Brookston is another moraine, 
which is crossed, or run through, to Paupori and Mirbat. The glacial 
flood waters of the river cut a large valley and the railroad follows the 
west bank from Carlton to Mirbat. 

Mirbat.— 70 miles; Alt. 1,249 feet. 

At Mirbat the boundary between the Labradorian (red) drift and 
the Keewatin (gray) drift is crossed. A lobe of the Keewatin glacier 
crossed the Iron Ranges and moved south as far as Mirbat, McGregor, 
and Moose Lake. The Patrician glacier had passed over the country 
to the north a little earlier, and its moraines were overridden by the 
ice of the Keewatin glacier. (See Chap. IV.) Glacial Lake Upham 
was formed from the ponded waters of the melting Keewatin glacier 
west and north of Mirbat. (See Chap. XXI.) About a mile west of 
Mirbat a beach of Lake Upham can be seen from the south window. 

Floodwood.— 75 miles; Alt. 1,257 feet. Island.— 81 miles; Alt. 
1,274 feet. Wawina.— 88 miles ; Alt. 1,269 feet. 



326 THE STORY OF THE ^ORTH STAR STATE 

About Floodwood is a clayey plain, sediment deposited by the 
waters of Lake Upham. This plain is crossed by St. Louis River. The 
plain continues up Floodwood River from Floodwood. These clayey 
tracts lie along the river courses, and the intervening areas are marshes. 
Island is on an island of clay, "surrounded by marsh. Wawina is on a 
larger island, which is sandy in character. 

Swan River. — 92 miles; Alt. 1,294 feet. (For Kelly Lake Line see 
p. 337. For Hill City Line see p. 373.) 

Sandy plain near western shore of Lake Upham. To the west is a 
moraine of Patrician red drift overridden by gray Keewatin drift. 

Warba.— 97 miles; Alt. 1,277 feet. Blackberry.— 101 miles; Alt. 
1,304 feet. Grand Rapids.— Ill miles; Alt. 1,289 feet. (Itasca County.) 
(For Hibbing-Virginia Line see p. 337.) 

Warba and Blackberry are on gently rolling till-plain. About 
Grand Rapids red drift moraines overridden by Keewatin ice and 
veneered with gray drift. A few miles southwest of Grand Rapids is 
Pokegama Lake, a large lake with exceedingly irregular outline, in de- 
pressions in the overridden moraine. 

Cohasset.— 116 miles; Alt. 1,287 feet. Deer River.— 126 miles; Alt. 
1,294 feet. Bena.— 146 miles; Alt. 1,311 feet. 

Marshy undulating till-plain. The railroad runs between Ball Club 
Lake and the Mississippi River. The Mississippi passes within a few 
rods of Ball Club Lake but does not tap it. From Ball Club Lake the 
railroad runs along the south side of a large sandy outwash plain for a 
distance of 50 miles. 

Cass Lake. — 165 miles; Alt. 1,331 feet. (Park Rapids-Cass Lake 
Line see p. 332.) 

Cass Lake is between Cass Lake and Pike Bay, on the southern side 
of the great outwash plain. Lakes Winnibigoshish and Bemidji are on 
this sandy plain, across which from west to east meanders the Mississippi 
River. The Soo and Great Northern run side by side for 30 miles. North 
of this sandy plain is the large clayey moraine from which it was formed. 
Good clayey land lies south. Many beautiful smaller lakes lie in de- 
pressions in the sandy plain, showing that the water table is not far 
below the surface. 

Bemidji. — 180 miles; Alt. 1,351 feet. (Beltrami County.) (Crossing 
M. & I. Ry.) 

The railroad runs between Bemidji Lake and Lake Irving, crossing 
the Mississippi River by which the two lakes are connected. East of 
Nymore and Bemidji is an ''island" of clayey till-plain in the sandy 
outwash plain. Good clayey land lies a few miles south. 

Wilton.— 186 miles; Alt. 1,391 feet. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 327 

On a sandy moraine which forms an ''island" in the outwash plain. 
This morainic island is about 2 miles in width and 5 miles long, north 
and south. 

Solway.— 192 miles; Alt. 1,454 feet. 

On rolling clayey till-plain. The outwash plain of sand which has 
been traversed for 50 miles has its western margin 3 miles east. 

Shevlin.— 198 miles; Alt. 1,457 feet. Bagley.— 205 miles; Alt. 1,446 
feet. (Clearwater County.) Ebro. — 213 miles; Alt. 1,458 feet. 

These three places are on a long narrow outwash plain which bor- 
ders an extensive clayey moraine to the north. This outwash plain 
extends south from Bagley and Ebro more than 30 miles through the 
great moraine. The moraine continues southward and becomes merged 
with the great Fergus Falls moraine. 

Lengby. — 219 miles; Alt. 1,395 feet. 

Lengby is in the midst of this great moraine. Many small lakes 
occupy basins amongst the hills. This great moraine extends across the 
continental Height of Land. Height of Land Lake is in this moraine 
40 miles south. Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River, is 25 
miles southeast. Many rivers that discharge into the Red River of the 
North take their beginning among the hills of this moraine, as Clear- 
water, Lost, Hill, Poplar, Sand Hill, Wild Rice, White Earth, and 
Buffalo. 

Fosston.— 226 miles; Alt. 1,298 feet. Mcintosh.— 233 miles; Alt. 
1,228 feet. 

Fosston at west edge of moraine. Mcintosh is on rolling till-plain. 

Erskine.— 239 miles; Alt. 1,201 feet. 

Sandy moraine 3 miles east. Herman Beach, highest shore-line of 
Lake Agassiz, crossed 1 mile east. Group of morainic lakes south 
and west, the largest of which is Maple Lake. 

Mentor.— 246 miles; Alt. 1,177 feet. 

Mentor is on the second Herman Beach. The first or highest lies 
parallel with the railroad and the second beach 1 mile south. West of 
Maple Lake the beaches turn abruptly south. Four miles west of 
Mentor the second Herman Beach is crossed by the railroad, and a mile 
farther west another, the third Herman Beach, is crossed. The beaches 
are here multiple, and represent changes in the level of the crust of 
the earth. (See Chap. XIV.) 

Dugdale.— 251 miles ; Alt. 1,143 feet. Tilden.— 253 miles; Alt. 1,120 
feet. (Crossing N. P. Ry.) Benoit.— 257 miles; Alt. 1,030 feet. 

Between Dugdale and Benoit 8 beaches are crossed, and 2 more are 
crossed west of Benoit. There is a difference in elevation between the 
highest and lowest Herman Beaches here of 98 feet. Yet these beaches 



328 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

all merge into one beach at Lake Traverse. These differences in level 
show that the crust of the earth was rising during the time the beaches 
were being formed. (See Chap. XIV.) 

Crookston.— 272 miles; Alt. 871 feet. (Polk County.) 

Crookston is on the flat plain of the ancient bottom of Lake Agassiz. 

Fisher.— 283 miles; Alt. 856 feet. Mallory.— 291 miles; Alt. 841 
feet. East Grand Forks.— 297 miles; Alt. 835 feet. 

The line west is upon the lacustrine silt deposited on the deeper 
bottom of Lake Agassiz. The Red River of the North, the boundary 
of the State, is crossed at East Grand Forks. 

(For North Dakota see ''The Story of the Prairies," Willard, p. 315.) 

WINNIPEG LINE 

Barnesville. — 218 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 1,025 feet. Downer. — 
226 miles; Alt. 968 feet. 

Barnesville is on the Tintah Beach. A belt of leveled moraine half 
a mile to 1 mile in width lies west of Barnesville, and is crossed bj^ 
the railroad immediately west of the city. The Campbell Beach is 
crossed at west side of the leveled moraine, and the McCauleyville 
Beach is crossed approaching Downer. 

Glyndon.— 235 miles ; Alt. 926 feet. (Crossing N. P. Ry.) Averill.— 
242 miles ; Alt. 921 feet. 

Glyndon is on the fine-grained lacustrine plain. Averill is near the 
edge of the wave-washed sandy shore plain. 

Felton.— 250 miles; Alt. 919 feet. Borup.— 257 miles; Alt. 915 feet. 
Wheatville.— 260 miles; Alt. 910 feet. Ada.— 265 miles; Alt. 910 feet. 
Lockhart.— 275 miles ; Alt. 898 feet. Beltrami.— 282 miles ; Alt. 905 feet. 

Felton is on the sandy littoral zone, — wave-washed sand covering 
the deeper clayey subsoil. Beaches to the east. Toward the west the 
soil grades into the fine lacustrine silt. North to Ada and Crookston 
the plain is that of fine lacustrine sediment. The soil is famous for its 
fertility. The plain is nearly flat, and artificial drainage is required 
in places to assist nature in carrying away the waters. The Wild Rice 
River, after dropping down from the Height of Land to the east, divides 
east of Ada and enters the Red River of the North by two distinct 
channels, the northern one, which joins the Red near Shelley, being 
known as Marsh River. At Beltrami is a sandy plain having much the 
aspect of a delta. It is a sandy plain at the point where Sand Hill River 
discharged into Lake Agassiz. After crossing its own sand-plain Sand 
Hill River spreads out into a marsh west of Beltrami, then sluggishly 
meanders across the flat lake bottom plain to the Red River of the North. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WII^DOW 329 

Crookstan.— 299 miles; Alt. 871 feet. (Polk County.) (Crossing 
N. P. Ry.) (For Duluth Line see p. 323. For Warroad Line see p. 329.) 
Shirley.— 306 miles; Alt. 905 feet. Euclid.— 313 miles; Alt. 895 feel. 
Angus.— 321 miles ; Alt. 875 feet. 

Shirley is on sandy littoral zone. McCauleyville Beach crossed 3 
miles south, and lies parallel with the railroad north. Euclid is on lake- 
washed till-plain, the town being at the boundary between the fine- 
grained lacustrine silt west and the lake-washed till east. 

Warren.— 329 miles; Alt. 858 feet. (Marshall County.) (Crossing 
Soo Line.) Argyle. — 339 miles; Alt. 850 feet. Stephen. — 348 miles; 
Alt. 833 feet. Donaldson. — 356 miles. Kennedy. — 361 miles. Hallock. — 
370 miles; Alt. 820 feet. Northcote.— 376 miles; Alt. 807 feet. Hum- 
boldt.— 383 miles. St. Vincent.— 390 miles; Alt. 790 feet. Winnipeg.— 
458 miles; Alt. 757 feet.. 

The sandy littoral zone approaches Warren on the east, and extends 
near the railroad north to Argyle. Thence on the broad flat plain ex- 
tends as far as the eye can reach, save for interruption of lines of trees 
along the stream courses. The plain presents the monotonous level 
like that of the sea. The fertility of the soil formed from this fine- 
grained lake sediment is world renowned. Here has long been one of 
the great sources of the world's bread supply. Probably nowhere else 
in the world is there a plain so great in extent, so nearly level in sur- 
face, and so fertile in those elements which are needed for the growth 
of cereal crops. 

WARROAD BRANCH 

Red Lake Falls.— 32 miles from Crookston; Alt. 1,001 feet. (Red 
Lake County.) St. Hilaire.— 42 miles; Alt. 1,083 feet. 

The surrounding nearly level plain is that of lake-washed till, the 
drift deposits being leveled to a gently undulating surface by the waves 
of Lake Agassiz. The Campbell Beach is 3 miles west. Several frag- 
ments of beaches are on the sandy plain 4 to 6 miles east. Lake-washed 
sand lies along the Red Lake River and its tributaries. 

Thief River Falls.— 50 miles; Alt. 1,135 feet. (Pennington County.) 
(Crossing Soo Line.) 

Lake-washed till with marshy depressions surrounding. A moraine 
deposited in Lake Agassiz and leveled by its waves, and overstrewn 
with sand, lies 3 miles west. Sandy and gravelly beaches border this 
leveled moraine on the west. 

Holt.— 62 miles; Alt. 1,161 feet. 

On wave-washed moraine. A sandy beach lies on either side of 
this moraine. 



330 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Middle River.— 72 miles; Alt. 1,149 feet. 

West of lake-washed moraine on tract of littoral sand. Beaches 
crossed north, then an arm of the great Beltrami swamp, to Strathcona. 

Strathcona. — 81 miles. 

Sandy beaches crossed south of Strathcona. On lake-washed sandy 
till-plain. 

Greenbush.— 91 miles; Alt. 1,078 feet. 

Lake-washed sandy till-plain. Town on sandy Campbell Beach. 
Marsh bordering beach on south is caused by the beach holding back 
the waters from draining away. 

Badger.— 100 miles; Alt. 1,076 feet. Fox.— 107 miles. Roseau.— 
113 miles; Alt. 1,056 feet. (Roseau County.) 

The railroad runs on the Campbell Beach 4 miles beyond Fox. The 
plain on either side of the beach is lake-washed clayey till. 

Mandus. — 118 miles. Salol. — 123 miles. Warroad. — 135 miles; Alt. 
1,073 feet. 

Salol is on an island of lake-washed sandy till surrounded by the 
Beltrami Swamp. Warroad stands on the lake-washed till-plain 1 mile 
from the shore of Lake of the Woods. A fragment of beach is passed 
west, and another lies 1 mile south. 

DULUTH-WILLMAR LINE 

Brook Park.— 80 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,030 feet. 

Gently rolling or flat till-plain. Many undrained depressions. 
Boulders abundant, from the Lake Superior region. 

Quamba. — 85 miles. 

Flat marshy till-plain east. Low-rolling clayey moraine immediate- 
ly east of station, about 2 miles in width. 

Mora.— 91 miles; Alt. 1,010 feet. (Kanabec County.) Ogilvie.— 98 
miles. Bock.— 105 miles; Alt. 1,084 feet. 

A gravelly esker 10 miles in length is cut through by Snake River 
at Mora. This has been extensively used as a source of gravel. Mora 
is on a gravelly outwash plain which is related to the moraine north. 
Snake River and the streams crossed to the west are small streams flow- 
ing over the bottoms of large valleys, — valleys cut by the larger glacial 
flood streams that coursed down them. Mora to Milaca and beyond is 
a splendid tract of rolling till-plain having excellent soil. Hard wood 
forests have grown extensively since the cutting of the original pine. 

Milaca.— 110 miles; Alt. 1,073 feet. (Mille Lacs County.) (For 
Princeton Line see p. 331.) 

Rum River is a small stream which meanders over the broad bottom 
of a large glacial valley. It carries water from Mille Lacs Lake to the 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 331 

Mississippi. A clayey moraine a quarter of a mile in width lies parallel 
with the railroad Milaca to Foreston. 

Foreston. — 3 miles from Milaca. Ronneby. — 12 miles. Foley. — 14 
miles; Alt. 1,798 feet. (Benton County.) 

Rolling till-plain or ground moraine. An esker 4 miles in length 
lies south of Foley 1 mile. 

St. Cloud.— 29 miles; Alt. 1,040 feet. (Stearns County.) (Crossing 
N. P. Ry.) 

One mile west of St. Cloud outcropping of granitic rock where ex- 
tensive quarries are operated. 

Rockville.— 39 miles ; Alt. 1,077 feet. 

On outwash plain in valley of Sauk River. Till-plains north and 
south approaching Rockville. Moraine west bordering outwash plain 
both north and south. Three miles west cross boundary between Patri- 
cian (red) drift (east) and Keewatin (gray) drift (west). 

Richmond. — 48 nliles. 

On broad undulating outwash plain of Sauk Valley. This was the 
old valley of the Mississippi. (Chap. XVI.) Many lakes and sloughs 
in depressions. Moraine north, and in distance south. 

Roscoe. — 54 miles. Paynesville.— 59 miles. Hawick. — 64 miles. 

On sandy outwash plain which extends 40 miles northward. Cross- 
ing Soo Line at Paynesville. 

New London.— 71 miles ; Alt. 1,218 feet. 

At southern point of outwash plain amidst the hills and lakes of 
the Fergus Falls moraine. Railroad runs south across moraine, passing 
west of Green Lake and many small lakes. Gently rolling till-plain about 
Willmar. 

PRINCETON LINE 

Pease. — 115 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,030 feet. 

Rolling or undulating till-plain. Three miles south cross sandy 
moraine one-half mile in width, then across flat clayey plain, the bot- 
tom of a glacial lake which was formed by the hemming in of the water 
from the melting ice sheet by the moraine which is crossed 1 mile north 
of Princeton. The outlet of the lake was 3 miles west of Princeton, 
across a sandy outwash plain that joins the great outwash plain along 
the Mississippi. 

Princeton.— 124 miles; Alt. 976 feet. 

Princeton is on an extensive undulating sandy plain, in part wind- 
blown. (See Chaps. Ill and XXVI.) Rum River valley is a large 
glacial valley, with broad flat bottom over which the river meanders. 

Zimmerman. — 133 miles: Alt. 977 feet. 



332 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

From Zimmerman south the topography is that of typical terminal 
moraine, very decidedly rolling in character. The moraine is sandy in 
character, and forested to a large extent. Four miles north of Elk River 
the sandy outwash plain of the Mississippi is reached. 

PARK RAPIDS-CASS LAKE LINE 

Sauk Center. — 117 miles from St. Paul. Little Sauk. — 10 miles; Alt. 
1,261 feet. 

The old course of the Mississippi was where the Sauk Valley is now 
from Sauk Center to Richmond. (See Chap. XVI.) Sauk Lake lies in 
the old valley, the water being ponded by the outwash in the valley. 
The railroad runs on the drift hills that block the old valley to Little Sauk. 

Round Prairie. — 131 miles; Alt. 1,334 feet. Long Prairie. — 136 
miles; Alt. 1,298 feet. (Todd County.) Browerville.— 143 miles; Alt. 
1,284 feet. 

Round Prairie is on the glacial gravel filling which was deposited 
when the ice waters were carrjdng their burden of earth southward. 
The outwash plain is broad here, hence it is called "round" prairie. 
Long Prairie River now flows in the opposite direction to that of the 
glacial river which built up the sandy bottom. The sandy plain of 
the valley is narrow and long, and hence the name "long" prairie. The 
railroad follows down Long Prairie River, but up the old glacial river 
course, to Browerville. Here it turns up Eagle Creek, which also is in 
a large glacial stream channel. Rolling till-plain borders the old glacial 
valley on either side. The till-plain was formerly forested, but the 
sandy and gravelly valley bottoms were not naturally forested. This 
was therefore a "long prairie" in a forested country, and hence came 
to be called "Long Prairie." 

Clarissa. — 149 miles; Alt. 1,331 feet. Eagle Bend. — 154 miles; Alt. 
1,367 feet. Bertha.— 161 miles ; Alt. 1,406 feet. Hewitt.— 165 miles. 

At Eagle Bend the railroad turns away from the ancient water- 
course and crosses rolling till-plain past Bertha to Hewitt. An outwash 
channel now followed by Wing River is crossed at Hewitt. A clayey 
till-plain and small moraine are west. Then sandy outwash to Wadena. 

Wadena.— 173 miles; Alt. 1,334 feet. (Wadena County.) Sebeka.— 
187 miles. Menahga.— 198 miles; Alt. 1,403 feet. Park Rapids.— 108 
miles; Alt. 1,434 feet. (Hubbard County.) 

A broad sandy plain about Wadena consists of glacial deposits 
overlaid with fine sand and silt which were partially water-assorted by 
waters from the melting ice sheet. Six miles north of Wadena a gently 
rolling clayey till-plain extends to and beyond Sebeka. North from 
Sebeka to Park Rapids is the western edge of a great sandy outwash 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW . 333 

plain formed from the large moraine which embraces the southern half 
of Hubbard County arid extends for many miles both east and west. 

Dorset. — 215 miles. Nevis.— 220 miles; Alt. 1,473 feet. Akeley. — 
226 miles; Alt. 1,480 feet. Walker.— 236 miles; Alt. 1,342 feet. (Cass 
County.) (Crossing M. & I. Ry.) 

Park Rapids to Dorset and Nevis the sandy morainic hills have 
been washed and leveled by the w^aters escaping from the great melting 
ice sheet. Many beautiful lakes lie in depressions on this modified out- 
wash tract, and along the morainic hills to the north. Lake Itasca and 
many beautiful lakes are w^ithin a few miles. At Akeley the morainic 
hills were somewhat subdued by the outwashing glacial waters but the 
hills north and south of Akeley and on to Walker are typically roughly- 
rolling. Walker is on the west shore of Leech Lake amidst the most 
beautiful of morainic hills. 

Wilkinson.— 248 miles. Cass Lake.— 257 miles; Alt. 1,331 feet. 
Bemidji.— 272 miles; Alt. 1,351 feet. (Beltrami County.) 

The railroad runs for 10 miles north from Walker through rolling 
morainic hills, forested except w^here the forests have been destroyed 
by axe or fire. Wilkinson is on a till-plain, w4th marsh to the east. 
This till-plain continues north till the great sandy outwash plain is 
reached, which extends to and beyond Cass Lake. 

HUTCHINSON LINE 

Minnetonka Beach.— 29 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 961 feet. 

On north shore of Lake Minnetonka amid the rolling hills of this 
morainic region. The many baj^s of the lake, and the islands, which 
are morainic hills surrounded by water, with the setting of morainic 
hills and hollows all about, make a picturesque example of morainic 
topography. 

St. Bonifacius.— 37 miles; Alt. 945 feet. 

The great terminal moraine continues, passing Clearwater Lake, 
and many small lakes. 

Mayer. — 45 miles. 

On rolling till-plain, which borders the moraine on the w^est. Buf- 
falo Lake crossed 1 mile west. 

Lester Prairie. — 52 miles ; Alt. 983 feet. 

On rolling till-plain. 

Silver Lake. — 60 miles. 

Silver Lake is one of a group of beautiful morainic lakes that oc- 
cupy depressions in the rolling till-plain. These lakes are morainic in 
character, and the till-plain differs from terminal moraine only in the 
degree of irregularity of the surface. 



334 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Hutchinson. — 68 miles; Alt. 1,044 feet. 

Hutchinson is at the southern point of a prominent moraine that 
extends away to the north. This moraine is thickly set with typical 
morainic lakes, with many small basins often called "pots and kettles," 
many of these lakes having beautiful shores. Most of the lakes are 
without outlets, being typical dump moraine basins. This is the south- 
ern part of the Lake Park Region of Minnesota. This great moraine 
extends continuously though with much irregularity to and beyond 
Fergus Falls, and is included in the Fergus Falls moraine. 

WILLMAR-YANKTON LINE 

Raymond. — 114 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,082 feet. 

Rolling till-plain Willmar to Raymond. Small lake at Raymond, an 
enlargement of Hawk Creek. This creek is deflected towards the north- 
west from its course southward by a narrow moraine which lies west 
of Raymond. 

Clara City.— 122 miles ; Alt. 1,057 feet. 

At west end of a moraine which extends 15 miles east. 

Maynard. — 128 miles. 

Till-plain from Clara City. Cross moraine 1 mile west. The rail- 
road crosses outwash plain and moraine before entering the valley of 
Minnesota River. 

Granite Falls.— 137 miles; Alt. 931 feet. (Yellow Medicine County.) 

South of the station is a large natural "park" of granite crags 
and knobs. Many polished surfaces show the efi^ect of the passing of 
the ice sheets over these hard rocks. Many granite boulders were car- 
ried from here southward and deposited with other drift materials. 
Glacial gravels form the valley bottom, filled in after the glacial floods 
had eroded the deep valley. 

Hanley Falls. — 146 miles. Cottonwood.— 152 miles. 

Cross moraine 2 miles in width after leaving Minnesota Valley. 
Rolling till-plain or ground moraine continues beyond Cottonwood. 
Lakes occupy many depressions in till-plain. 

Green Valley. — 160 miles. 

Four moraines lying in parallel belts between Cottonwood and Green 
Valley merge into one broad morainic belt east. Bordering this moraine 
is an outwash plain or glacial channel which borders the moraine on 
the south and west for 50 miles. 

Marshall. — 165 miles; Alt. 1,165 feet. (Lincoln County.) 

Gently rolling till-plain north. The city is on a low-rolling moraine, 
which extends many miles northwest and southeast. The moraine is 
here about a mile wide. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 335 

Lynd.— 178 miles; Alt. 1,329 feet. Russell.— 178 miles; Alt. 1,517 
feet. Florence.— 186 miles ; Alt. 1,724 feet. 

After crossing the ancient waterway at Green Valley the railroad 
follows the course of Redwood River 25 miles to Florence, up the east 
slope of the Coteau des Prairies. The rise from Marshall to Florence 
is 556 feet in 21 miles. Lynd is on rolling till-plain. West a roughly 
rolling moraine is crossed to Russell. The C. & N. W. Ry. is crossed 
east of Florence amidst the rolling hills of another moraine. 
Ruthton.— 191 miles; Alt. 1,730 feet. 

On rolling till-plain. Two miles west the great Altamont moraine. 
This moraine forms the crest of the Coteau des Prairies. The hills 
are picturesque in their irregular tumbling character, and fittingly 
mark the limit reached by the great ice sheet. 
Holland.— 199 miles; Alt. 1,778 feet. 

Holland is on the west slope of the Coteau des Prairies. Ancient 
watercourses extend away from the moraine, avenues by which the 
waters from the melting glacier escaped to the Missouri Valley. One 
of these ancient channels is crossed before reaching Holland. Small 
streams meander on many of the flat bottoms of these ancient courses. 
Pipestone.— 207 miles; Alt. 1,732 feet. (Pipestone County.) 
Holland to Pipestone is undulating or rolling till-plain, which lies 
west of the great Altamont moraine. The boundary of the drift de- 
posited by the Keewatin glacier lies in the western limits of the city 
of Pipestone. 

Ihlen.— 214 miles; Alt. 1,649 feet. Jasper.— 219 miles; Alt. 1,544 
feet. 

West from Pipestone the railroad follows the valley of Split Rock 
Creek. This valley has been eroded deeply into the hard rocks that 
underlie the old Kansan drift. 

WATERTOWN-HURON LINE 

Benson.— 132 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,050 feet. (Swift County.) 
Danvers. — 140 miles. Holloway. — 148 miles. 

Sandy outwash plain from Benson 6 miles. Danvers is on a narrow 
moraine, clayey in character, then another outwash plain. Holloway 
is' on rolling till-plain. Holloway to Appleton the railroad runs on 
sandy outwash past the ends of 4 moraines which were islands in 
the great glacial River Warren. 

Appleton.— 154 miles; Alt. 1,016 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 
Louisburg. — 163 miles. Bellingham. — 169 miles. Nassau. — ^178 miles; 
Alt. 1,122 feet. 



■iSG THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

The railroad continues west across the sandy outwash plain, and 
crosses the Minnesota Valley. Louisburg is on an island of clayey till, 
a channel of the flood stage of Kiver Warren lying to the west. Rolling 
till-plain to Bellingham. Large moraine west, nearly to Nassau. Out- 
wash plain east of Nassau, bordered by narrow moraine on which Nas- 
sau stands. 

BROWN'S VALLEY LINE 

Morris. — 157 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 1,140 feet. (Stevens County.) 
Chokio. — 171 miles. Johnson. — 177 miles. Graceville. — 184 miles; Alt. 
1,109 feet. (Crossing C, M. & St. P. Ry.) 

The line west from Morris is through a rolling ground moraine or 
till-plain. The character of the drift is clayey rather than sandy, and 
the texture of the soil is excellent. Many of the hills or ground swells 
approach the dignity of morainic hills, and again the topography has a 
broad sweeping horizon of the gently and broadh^ rolling prairie. Many 
lakes occupy depressions in the till-plain, and these are mostly without 
outlets, showing the ''young" character of the landscai)e. Northwest 
of Graceville is a moraine Avhich marks the baiting i)lace of the margin 
of the glacier immediately preceding the beginning of Lake Agassiz, 

Beardsley.— 197 miles; Alt. 1,098 feet. 

Three miles east the railroad enters upon a moraine at the west 
edge of which Beardsley is located. An outwash plain 1 to 2 miles 
wide extends south along the west side of this moraine to Big Stone Lake. 
This was the avenue of escape for the waters from the melting ice sheet 
to glacial River Minnesota. 

Brown's Valley.— 204 miles; Alt. 981 feet. 

Crossing a till-plain about 4 miles the deep valley of Traverse Gap 
is reached. Brown's Valley stands on the glacial outwash or sandy fill- 
ing of this ancient channel, and is the technical source of Minnesota 
River. The city is built on the sandy filling which is the "divide" 
between the northward flowing Red River of the North and the Min- 
nesota. It was across this divide and through this gap that River 
Warren carried the waters of Lake Agassiz southward. (See Chap. XII.) 

EVANSVILLE-TINTAH LINE 

Elbow Lake. — 17 miles from Evansville; Alt. 1,199 feet. (Gi'aiit 
County.) Hereford.— 24 miles. Tintah.— 3-'] miles; Alt. 1.001 feet. 

Evansville is amongst the hills of the great Fergus Falls moraine. 
The line runs through the hills west about 7 miles, then till-plain. West 
of the till-plain an outwash channel is crossed, over the broad flat bot- 
tom of which Pomme de Terre River meanders for a distance of 70 miles, 
past Morris ajid Appleton, till it enters the Minnesota. This valley 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 337 

is broad, and its bottom filled with glacial gravel and sand. A large 
river flowed down this valley when the ice was melting near Fergus 
Falls. West of this ancient channel is a narrow moraine, followed by 
till-plain. Elbow Lake is on another moraine, in the midst of a group 
of beautiful morainic lakes. West is another belt of undulating till- 
plain, between which and another long narrow moraine is an ancient 
watercourse on the sandy bottom of which Mustinka River now meanders. 
West of this moraine is till-plain, up to the sandy and gravelly shore- 
line of Lake Agassiz, the Herman Beach. A mile west the Norcross Beach 
is crossed, and after crossing wave-washed till for several miles the 
Tintah Beach is crossed. Tintah is on the wave-washed till-plain near 
this beach. 

PELICAN RAPIDS BRANCH 

Elizabeth. — 196 miles from St. Paul. Erharts. — 203 miles. Pelican 
Rapids.— 209 miles ; Alt. 1,302 feet. 

This branch of the railroad runs on the outwash plain that extends 
to Detroit. It becomes broader toward the north. Ruggedly rolling mo- 
rainic hills lie on either side of the great outwash plain. This is an in- 
teresting part of the Lake Park Region. Lakes Lida and Lizzie lie to 
the east, and Pelican and Cormorant to the north. Countless smaller 
lakes of great beauty are on every hand. A clayey lake bottom plain 
lies east of Pelican Rapids. Around beautiful Lakes Lida and Lizzie there 
are gravelly beaches which are 7 to 10 feet higher than the present lakes 
showing that the two lakes Avere once included in a larger body of 
water. Pelican River drains Pelican, Lizzie, Lida, and Prairie, and flows 
down across the sandy plain of the ancient glacial watercourse past 
Elizabeth to a point 4 miles north of Fergus Falls, wiiere it crosses the 
moraine to the westward and enters upon the sandy plain of another 
outwash channel, and flows south in this channel till it joins the Otter 
Tail or Red. 

KELLY LAKE & VIRGINIA LINE 

Goodland.— 98 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,420 feet. Acropolis.— 101 
miles. Bengal. — 107 miles. (Crossing D., M. & N. Ry.) 

Railroad runs near shore of glacial Lake Uphara, on overridden mo- 
raine of red drift. 

Kelly Lake.— 118 miles; Alt. 1,511 feet. 

On rolling till-plain. Overridden moraine north. 

Hibbing.— 122 miles; Alt. 1,542 feet. Chisholm.— 127 miles; Alt. 
1,502 feet. Buhl.— 132 miles. Virginia.— 144 miles ; Alt. 1,434 feet. 

The line from Kelly Lake to Virginia is over a drift covered area, 
stony and rolling hilly. The great Mesabi Iron Range lies to the north 



338 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

and parallel with the course of the railroad. East of Virginia the primi- 
tive Archaean rocks outcrop. The Archaean and other pre-Cambrian for- 
mations north of the Range were swept bare of soil by the ice sheets. 
The drift covering in this part of the State varies from none or a few feet 
to 50 or more. The rock formations are pre-Cambrian in age. They 
are very hard, and from this fact arises the great number of "hardheads" 
or boulders of granite and quartzite and other hard rocks in the drift 
deposits to the south. 

COLERAINE LINE 

Coleraine. — 9 miles from Grand Rapids; Alt. 1,343 feet. Bovey. — 
10 miles. 

Overridden moraine, red drift veneered by gray drift. Trout Lake 
south. 

Nashwauk. — 24 miles; Alt. 1,430 feet. 

Overridden moraine. Pass Swan Lake and other small morainic 
lakes. 

Keewatin.— 29 miles; Alt. 1,472 feet. 

On rolling till-i)lain. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY 

St. Paul.— miles; Alt. 732 feet. (Ramsey County.) 

(For trains running St. Paul to Minneapolis over Great Northern 
tracks, see p. 316.) 

Leaving Union Depot the railroad ascends an old pregiacial valley 
which was partially filled with drift. At Soo Junction morainic hills 
of red drift are encountered. These morainic hills continue to Como 
Lake, then a red drift outwash plain is crossed as far as the State Fair 
Grounds. The State Fair Grounds and the buildings of the State Agri- 
cultural College are on hills of gray drift. The boundary between the 
red drift morainic hills and the veneer of gray drift deposited by the 
later Keew^atin glacier passes through St. Anthony Park. The roughly 
rolling hills east and south are red drift. The more undulating surface 
westward is that of the gray drift. The railroad thence crosses tracts 
of peat and dune sand to the glacial gravel terraces of the Mississippi, 
and crosses the rocky gorge of the Mississippi below St. Anthony Falls. 

Minneapolis. — 10 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 854 feet. (Hennepm 
County.) 

Fine view of the head of the gorge of the Mississippi and of St. 
Anthony Falls. St. Peter sandstone exposed below; Trenton limestone 
above. North of the city the railroad again crosses the river to the 
east bank. Northward dune sand and glacial gravel terraces border the 
river. At Northtown a gray drift moraine is cut through by the river. 
St. Peter sandstone overlaid by Trenton limestone is exposed above 
Northtown. 

Fridley is on an island of outwash gravel, with glacial gravel ter- 
race between it and the river. Dune sand and peaty marshes to Coon 
Creek. Gray outwash gravel to Anoka. 

Anoka.— 29 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 904 feet. (Anoka County.) 

Sandy outwash plain, nearly level. Moraine at Dayton west of 
river. 

Elk River.— 41 miles; Alt. 924 feet. (Sherburne County.) 

On edge of outwash plain. Terminal moraine east and north. Roll- 
ing hills and lakes characteristic of terminal moraines. Mississippi 
River seen from west window. Morainic hills seen from east window 
(north). 

339 



340 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Big Lake.— 49 miles; Alt. 960 feet. Becker.— 57 miles; Alt. 996 feet. 

Outwash plain of gray drift, related to moraine across river at En- 
field, 1 mile west of Becker. 

Clear Lake. — 64 miles; Alt, 1,016 feet. 

Outwash plain; gently undulating, with hollows occupied by lakes. 
These basins mark places where pieces of glacier ice were buried, and 
later melted leaving the hollows. 

St. Cloud.— 76 jniles; Alt. 1,049 feet. (Stearns County. Railroad 
station is in Benton County.) (Crossing G. N. Ry.) 

State Reform School, west window, before reaching St. Cloud. 
Sandy and gravelly soil of the outwash plain with tract of wind-blown 
dune sand east. Rolling clayey till-plain outside the valley. Two 
areas of granitic rock occur, one northeast and another southwest of 
St. Cloud; extensive granite quarries are operated. The Mississippi 
River is crossed in going from the station to city of St. Cloud. 

Sauk Rapids. — 77 miles; Alt. 1,034 feet. 

Sauk Rapids is located on a sloping hill of granitic rock. The out- 
wash plain lies on either side of the Mississippi River. The river was 
diverted from its old course by the glacier and forced to flow across 
the rocky ledge which forms the rapids. (Chap. XVI.) The granite 
which here appears at the surface is part of the ancient rock foundation 
of Minnesota. (See Chap. X.) 

SartelL— 80 miles; Alt. 1,044 feet. Watab.— 84 miles; Alt. 1,080 
feet. 

Rapids caused by river passing over ledge of granite rock. Railroad 
traverses glacial river terraces. Hills east are dune sand upon granite 
rock, or upon drift (till). 

Rice.— 90 miles ; Alt. 1,086 feet. Royalton.— 97 miles ; Alt. 1,103 feet. 

Gently undulating red drift outwash plain. Soil sandy. Dune sand 
over moraine north and east, wooded. One mile east of Royalton clayey 
till-plain, with soil of excellent quality. 

Little Falls. — 107 miles; Alt. 1,134 feet. (Morrison County.) 

Pass under Soo Line 4 miles north of Royalton. Near crossing the 
character of the outwash plain changes to sand deposited by glacial 
flood waters of the Mississippi. This continues 2 miles north of Little 
Falls. Two miles east the surface is that of a rolling till-plain, with 
mixed sandy and clayey soils. Many lakes and sloughs in depressions. 
Fine quality of farming land. Railroad crosses the Mississippi River 
at this point. Large paper manufacturing plant. Power furnished by 
falls, which are formed by the river passing over ledge of granite rock. 
(See Chap. XVI.) 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WIlSDOW 341 

Darling.— 112 miles; Alt. 1,176 feet. 

The railroad leaves the Mississippi Valley at Little Falls, going up 
Little Elk Valley, and passes upon the rolling wooded clayey till-plain 
of the Patrician ice sheet. At Darling the railroad crosses a gravelly 
ridge known as an esker, from which gravel is obtained for railroad 
ballasting and other purposes. (See Chap. IV.) 

Randall.— 118 miles ; Alt. 1,201 feet. 

Eandall is located near the edge of the till-plain. A roughly rolling 
moraine is seen about a mile to the east. 

Gushing.- 123 miles; Alt. 1,288 feet. Lincoln.— 129 miles; Alt. 
1,304 feet. 

Gushing and Lincoln are situated amongst typical wooded morainie 
hills of red drift, sandy in character. Beautiful lakes. These rolling 
lands are very productive when improved. (See Ghap. XXVI.) 

Philbrook.— 135 miles ; Alt. 1,269 feet. 

Gross Long Prairie River. Extensive sandy outwash plain. 

Staples.— 141 miles; Alt. 1,298 feet. (For Line to Duluth see p. 346.) 

Staples is located on the edge of a flat plain of red drift sandy out- 
wash which was later overridden by the Keewatin glacier and a deposit 
of clayey gray drift overspread. To the southwest is a rolling or gently 
undulating till-plain of gray drift, 

Aldrich.— 148 miles ; Alt. 1,351 feet. 

On the undulating till-plain of gray drift that covers the red out- 
wash plain to the north. Partridge River, at Aldrich, crosses the out- 
wash plain in a broad flat-bottomed valley. Rolling till-plain south. 

Verndale.— 152 miles; Alt. 1,369 feet. 

Outwash plain continues. Wing River crossed west. Valley broad 
with flat bottom, across outwash plain. 

Wadena. — 159 miles; Alt. 1,372 feet. (Wadena Gounty.) (Grossing 
G. N. Ry.) 

Outwash plain of red drift overlaid by gray drift continues. Low^ 
morainie hills west. 

Bluffton.— 164 miles- Alt. 1,344 feet. 

Bluffton on edge of clayey till-plain. Gross Leaf River. Broad val- 
ley with flat bottom. 

New York Mills.— 172 miles ; Alt. 1,433 feet. 

Till-plain continues 1 mile west, then moraine crossed to Richdale. 

Richdale.— 177 miles ; Alt. 1,417 feet. 

Edge of till-plain. Moraine north. Flat outwash plain south. Toad 
River crossed west. 

Perham.— 182 miles; Alt. 1,390 feet. Luce.— 188 miles; Alt. 1,396 
feet. Frazee.— 194 miles; Alt. 1,410 feet. 



342 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Kailroad follows the flat outwasli plain rather than the rolling 
morainic plain to the north or south. Easier grade. Esker 2 miles south 
of Perham. Another east of Pine Lake. (Not seen from railroad.) Roll- 
ing wooded morainic hills at Luce. Also at Frazee. Large glacial valley 
of Otter Tail River crossing outwash plain at Frazee. 

Detroit.— 203 miles; Alt. 1,386 feet. (Becker County.) (Crossing 
SooLine.) 

Detroit Lake in full view to the left approaching Detroit. Important 
summer resort. City and lakes on rolling gravelly pitted outwash j)lain. 
The depressions were caused by melting of blocks of ice which had 
become isolated from the parent glacier, and more or less completely 
buried. Lakes Melissa, Big Cormorant, Little Cormorant, Sally, and 
others, are within easy distance. Moraine west to Audubon. 

Audubon.— 210 miles ; Alt. 1,332 feet. 

On edge of clayey till-plain. Moraine south (left). 

Lake Park.— 216 miles; Alt. 1,341 feet. 

In the midst of morainic hills ; soil clayey ; good farming lands. 
Big and Little Cormorant Lakes and many smaller lakes with fine boat- 
ing and fishing a few miles south amid beautiful morainic hills. 

Manitoba Junction. — 224 miles; Alt. 1,228 feet. (Winnipeg Line 
see p. 352.) 

Rolling till-plain crosses deep glacial channel of Buffalo River. 

Hawley.— 228 miles; Alt. 1,174 feet. 

Hawley is on the edge of a till-plain ; terminal moraine west toward 
Muskoda. 

Muskoda.— 234 miles; Alt. 1,087 feet. 

Here is reached the eastern edge of the Red River Valley — the 
shore-line of glacial Lake Agassiz. The station is on the gravelly Her- 
man Beach. Many thousands of tons of gravel have been hauled from 
this beach for railroad filling and ballasting. From the crest of the 
Herman Beach to Glyndon, 10 miles west, the natural surface falls 150 
feet, and to reduce this grade the fill west of Muskoda was made. The 
mounds or ridges that lie on either side of this railroad fill were caused 
by the settling of the earth used in making the fill, the great pressure 
due to the weight of the materials in the fill caused creep or swelling 
of the ground on either side. 

Glyndon.— 242 miles; Alt. 946 feet. Moorhead.— 251 miles; Alt. 
929 feet. (Clay County.) 

Glyndon and Moorhead are on the bottom of what was once the 
great glacial Lake Agassiz. The water, where the city of Moorhead now 
stands, was 250 feet deep. The soil between Glyndon and Moorhead is 
that of the finer lacustrine silt of the ancient lake. It is one of the most 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 348 

productive soils in the world, when wisely handled. The soil types are 
the Fargo clay loam, and Fargo clay. The Fargo clay type was stated 
by the U. S. Bureau of Soils, when surveyed, to be one of the finest tex- 
tured soils ever analyzed in the Bureau Laboratories. By finest texture 
is meant that the rock particles of which the soil is composed are the 
finest. The sediment in this axial part of the lake is composed of the 
finest rock flour Avhich was carried into the lake from the melting ice. 
(Chap. XIII.) 

(For Geology from a Car Window in North Dakota see, ''The Story 
of the Prairies," p. 335.) 

DULUTH LINE 

White Bear.— 12 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 961 feet. Bald Eagle.— 
13 miles ; Alt. 955 feet. 

Pulling out from Union Depot two engines are required to lift the 
train up the steep grade through a narrow ravine cut in the soft earth 
of an outwash plain by waters falling into the deep valley of the Mis- 
sissippi. A moraine of red drift extends beyond Phalen Lake, then the 
red drift is overlaid with gray drift, and the hills become less sharply 
rolling, to White Bear Lake. Between White Bear and Bald Eagle Lakes 
and northward about 3 miles is an outwash plain lying between terminal 
moraines both east and west. 

Hugo.— 17 miles; Alt. 960 feet. 

South of Hugo a belt of terminal moraine is crossed. Hugo is on 
an outwash plain about 4 miles in length north and south. A moraine 
lies to the east, and a wind blown mixed sand and dust plain west. 

Forest Lake.— 25 miles ; Alt. 937 feet. 

The town stands at the west end of a beautiful lake from which it 
gets its name. This is a morainic lake. The undulating till-plain grad- 
uates into the more roughly rolling moraine to the east. To the west the 
till-plain is covered with ancient dune sands. (See Chap. II.) 

Wyoming. — 30 miles ; Alt. 925 feet. 

On the eastern edge of the broad sandy plain which covers portions 
of four counties west of the railroad. (Chap. XXVI.) The gray till- 
plain to the east reaches to the great red drift moraine which lies along 
the valley of the St. Croix River. 

Stacy.— 34 miles ; Alt. 922 feet. North Branch.— 42 miles ; Alt. 921 
feet. 

From Wyoming to Harris the railroad runs nearly due north across 
the eastern portion of the sandy plain which has been referred to. The 
soft and fine character of the soil has proven an important factor in 
making this district famous for the excellent quality of potatoes grown. 

Harris.— 47 miles ; Alt. 924 feet. 



344 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Harris is on a gently undulating till-plain. North 1 mile a terminal 
moraine of gray drift is crossed. The gray drift moraines are not as 
rough and stony as the red drift moraines. 

Rush City.— 54 miles ; Alt. 942 feet. 

Broadly rolling till-plain. ' Three miles east the fiat valley of St. 
Croix River. St. Croix River at one time passed where Rush City is now, 
by the course of Rum River to Dayton and the old Mississippi at Delano. 
(See Chap. XVII.) 

Grantsburg (Wis.).— 71 miles; Alt. 922 feet. 

Grantsburg is at the terminus of the Grantsburg Branch of the 
Northern Pacific Railway, which leaves the main line at Rush City. 
Grantsburg is located across the St. Croix River, on an extensive sandy 
outwash plain. 

Rock Creek. — 59 miles; Alt. 965 feet. 

On terminal moraine, about 1 mile in Avidth. Gently rolling clayey 
till-plain north to Pine City. 

Pine City.— 64 miles; Alt. 975 feet. (Pine County.) 

Pine City is at the boundary between the gray drift of the Keewatin 
glacier (south) and the red drift of the Patrician glacier (north). When 
the edge of the Keewatin glacier lay on the land south of Pine City the 
Mississippi River was forced to go around this tongue of ice. Its course 
was eastward by Snake River north of Princeton, by Grasston and Pine 
City to the St. Croix. (See Chap. XVI.) 

Terminal moraine, with beautiful morainic lakes. Topography sof- 
tens to a rolling till-plain 1 mile north, then graduates into a red terminal 
moraine 2 miles south of Beroun. 

Beroun. — 70 miles; Alt. 1,000 feet. Mission Creek. — 73 miles; Alt. 
1,020 feet. Hinckley.— 77 miles ; Alt. 1,057 feet. 

Swampy till-plain between Beroun and Mission. Several townships 
to the north and west are bordered by a terminal moraine so that drainage 
is retarded. The streams attempt to flow southward but are blocked by 
the moraine. Drainage is ultimately by Pine River to the St. Croix. 
Power dam on Grindstone River, west. The sandstone or "grindstone" 
rock is seen in a quarry on the east. 

Friesland. — 81 miles; Alt. 1,144 feet. Groeuigen. — 86 miles; Alt. 
1,155 feet. 

Rolling till-plain, with lakes and sloughs without outlets. 

Finlayson. — 90 miles; Alt. 1,154 feet. 

A long sharp morainic ridge is cut through 1 mile north. Morainic 
hills toward Rutledge. 

Rutledge.— 95 miles; Alt. 1,056 feel. Willow River.— 99 miles ; Alt. 
1.063 feet. Sturgeon Lake.— 103 miles; Alt. 1,100 feet. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 345 

Kettle River is crossed near Rutledge. This was at one time a large 
glacial river. The St. Louis River came around the western end of the 
glacier that filled the basin of Lake Superior, down by Moose Lake. Out- 
wash sand and gravel partially fill the valley, and the large channel now 
occupied by Kettle River was made by the flood of ice water. (See Chap. 
XX.) Moraines having clayey soil are seen to the west, and clayey till- 
plains lie farther away to the east. 

Moose Lake.— 109 miles; Alt. 1,085 feet. 

The town is in the valley of glacial St. Louis River. Moose Head 
Lake, in the east part of town, is in the old outlet channel of glacial 
Lake Nemadji, which was the earliest stage of glacial Lake Duluth. The 
western part of the town is built on a terrace of the glacial St. Louis 
River. The Soo depot stands on this terrace. Outside the old glacial 
river bottom and above it on either side of the valley are the moraines 
Avhich were formed by the Superior glacier as it pushed its way out of 
the Superior Basin. (See Chap. XX.) 

Barnum.— 114 miles; Alt. 1,122 feet. Mahtowa.— 120 miles; Alt. 
1,172 feet. Atkinson.— 124 miles; Alt. 1,168 feet. 

These places are in the large valley cut by the great glacial St. 
Louis River during the time that the basin of Lake Superior was filled 
w^ith ice. To the west 2 or 3 miles extends a belt with some outcropping 
ledges of ancient slate rock. (See Chap. X.) The rock outcrops are 
partially obscured by drift and by forest growth. 

Carlton.— 131 miles; Alt. 1,102 feet. (Carlton County.) 

Carlton is in the valley of glacial St. Louis River. To the west is 
a large outwash plain of gravel, from the Superior glacier. A channel 
one-half mile wide was cut through this by the glacial river. Knobs of 
slate rock, smoothed and polished by the passage of glacier ice over 
them, and left bare by the glacial river, are conspicuous features. 
Glacial striae on the hard rocks show the direction of ice movement 
westward. A terminal moraine, extending northeast and southwest, was 
cut through by the St. Louis River. Beaches of glacial Lake Duluth 
occur east. River gorge, falls, and dam, at Thompson, 1 mile east of 
Carlton. 

Duluth.— 164 miles; Alt. 626 feet. (St. Louis County.) 

One line of Northern Pacific Railway runs via Wrenshall and 
Superior, crossing the red ela^y deposits of glacial Lake Duluth. The 
"Short Line" runs via Thompson and West Duluth, following the edge 
of glacial Lake Duluth. The railroad runs on the beach of Lake Duluth 
east of Thompson for about 2 miles, then cuts through the moraine 
which is spread upon the highland to the north. At Brownell the rail 



346 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

road crosses the beach, then follows the ancient lake bottom to Duluth, 
the beaches at Duluth being 100 feet to 400 feet above the present lake. 

TAYLOR'S FALLS BRANCH 

Chisago. — 37 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 945 feet. Lindstrom. — 39 
miles; Alt. 960 feet. Center City.— 41 miles; Alt. 929 feet. (Chisago 
County.) Shafers.— 44 miles; Alt. 964 feet. 

This is a most beautiful rolling till-plain, graduating into the ter- 
minal moraines which surround this district. The drift is clayey in 
character, and very productive. Some of the finest dairy farms in the 
State are in this district. The group of lakes in southern Chisago 
County is a most beautiful one. They represent a preglacial valley 
partially filled with drift, blocked by moraines above and below. This 
is a popular resort for tourists for camping, boating, fishing, and pic- 
nicking. 

Taylor's Falls.— 50 miles; Alt. 818 feet. 

The approach to the town is along a steep cliff of the St. Croix 
River, with a splendid panoramic view of the river and valley below. 
The cut-bank overhanging the railroad shows 3 successive deposits of 
drift made by glaciers which covered this district at different times. 
(Chap. IV.) The history of this, one of the most interesting scenic spots 
in the Northwest, is given in Chapters XVII and XVIII. 

After passing Shafers about 2 miles the whole panorama suddenly 
changes from that of rolling prairie with fine farms to a precipitous 
rocky gorge of most striking grandeur. It is as though translated sud- 
denly, as in a dream, from the monotonous undulating prairie to the 
Grand Canyon itself. The ice sheets formed the prairies. The water 
from the melting ice sheets formed this most remarkable gorge, known as 
The Dalles. 

DULUTH-STAPLES LINE 

(For Duluth to Carlton see p. 345.) 

Iverson. — 32 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,259 feet. 

Terminal moraine of Labradorian glacier. Outwash plain west to 
Zebulon. 

Zebulon. — 37 miles. 

Terminal moraine crossed west, 5 miles in width. 

Corona.— 44 miles; Alt. 1,322 feet. 

Swamp hemmed in by moraine. Cross rolling till-plain 5 miles, to 
terminal moraine 1 mile east of Cromwell. 

Cromwell.— 49 miles; Alt. 1,330 feet. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 347 

Terminal moraine 2 miles in width, with fine morainic lakes. Out- 
wash plain south of railroad between Cromwell and Wright. Swamp 
to the north hemmed in by moraine. 

Wright.— 55 miles ; Alt. 1,322 feet. 

Terminal moraine. This and moraines east deposited by the Lab- 
radorian glacier. Boulders from the Lake Superior region are scat- 
tered over this region. 

Tamarack. — 61 miles; Alt. 1,290 feet. 

Swamp, hemmed in by moraine. One mile -east is the boundary be- 
tween the red drift of the Labradorian glacier and the gray drift of 
the Keewatin glacier. (Chap. IV.) The greater frequency of granitic 
boulders in the red drift is noticeable. 

Grayling. — 65 miles; Alt. 1,255 feet. 

Grayling is on the beach which marks the eastern shore of glacial 
Lake Aitkin. (Chap. XXI.) West to McGregor the sandy plain is the 
bottom of this extinct lake. 

McGregor. — 70 miles; Alt. 1,254 feet. (Crossing Soo Line.) 

On lake-washed sand-plain, the bottom of glacial Lake Aitkin. 
(Chap. XXI.) Three miles west a beach is crossed. This beach runs 
all around an irregular shaped island, a moraine, embracing an area 
about equivalent to a township. The railroad crosses this island. 

Kimberly.— 79 miles; Alt. 1,259 feet. 

Kimberly stands on the beach at the southern end of this island. 
Rice River Valley lies between the island and the "mainland" to the 
south, the river running between the island beach and the main lake 
beach. The railroad crosses Rice River and the main beach west of 
Kimberly, and runs on high land parallel with the beach to Rossburg. 

Rossburg.— 85 miles; Alt. 1,260 feet. 

The beach lies along the margin of a swamp, — the old lake bed, — 
with a roughly rolling terminal moraine to the south. 

Aitkin.— 91 miles; Alt. 1,230 feet. (Aitkin County.) 

Aitkin is on a sandy part of the lake plain, the beach lying one-half 
mile south. The Mississippi River meanders across the ancient lake bot- 
tom, passing 1 mile north of Aitkin. 

Cedar Lake. — 96 miles; Alt. 1,245 feet. 

The beach lies along the north shore of Cedar Lake. Two miles 
west the railroad crosses the ancient lake beach, into the rough terminal 
moraine of red drift. 

Deerwood. — 101 miles; Alt. 1,310 feet. 

Deerwood is located amongst the beautifully rolling morainic hills. 
Many beautiful lakes occur. This is typical terminal moraine. West 



348 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

of Deerwood an outwash plain is crossed, then another portion of the 
moraine extends to Loerch. 

Loerch.— Ill miles; Alt. 1,259 feet. 

Sandy outwash plain to Brainerd. 

Brainerd. — 118 miles; Alt.« 1,231 feet. (Crow Wing County.) 

Outwash plain of fine sand, wind-blown. Mississippi River crossed. 

Baxter.— 123 miles; Alt. 1,228 feet. 

Dune sand, on outwash plain. Lakes hemmed in among sand hills. 

Sylvan.— 128 miles; Alt. 1,230 feet. Pillager.— 132 miles; Alt. 1,232 
feet. Motley.— 140 miles; Alt. 1,250 feet. 

The railroad traverses the valley of Crow Wing River, which occu- 
pies a glacial stream valley the bottom of Avhich is from 2 to 6 miles 
in width. Terminal moraines both north and south of this broad out- 
wash channel, the channel being cut through by the ice waters when 
the moraines north and south were being formed. The soil of the out- 
wash is sandy. That of the moraines and near-by till-plains is clayey, 
and the soil is a fine quality of loam. (For line Staples to Fargo see 
p. 341.) 

LITTLE FALLS TO BRAINERD AND INTERNATIONAL FALLS 

Belle Prairie.— 113 miles; Alt. 1,155 feet. 

From Little Falls north to Brainerd, the railroad traverses the 
sandy plain or terrace of the glacial Mississippi River. The soil is sandy, 
as viewed from the car window. This condition, however, applies only 
to this plain, which varies from 3 to 6 miles in Avidth. Undulating till- 
plains, having good soil for agricultural pui'poses, lie east and west of 
Belle Prairie. 

Fort Ripley.— 122 miles; Alt. 1,190 feet. 

Going north to Fort Ripley, two eskers on the east and one on 
the west are passed. The eskers were formed in, on, or under the ice, 
probably at the time these moraines were being formed. Terminal 
moraines border the large valley on either side. The sand forming the 
broad valley floor is glacial outwash modified by the floodwaters of 
the glacial Mississippi River. Sand blown from the glacial river ter- 
races covers some of the slopes and hills on the east. 

Barrows.— 133 miles ; Alt. 1,227 feet. 

Iron mines of the Cayuna Range. (See Chap. XXIV.) 

Brainerd. — 139 miles; Alt. 1,231 feet. (Crow Wing County.) 
(Crossing Duluth-Staples Line.) 

To the east, approaching Brainerd, the landscape is that of a gently 
rolling till-plain. The city is located on the sandy alluvial floodplain 
of the glacial Mississippi. West of Brainerd the sand is blown by the 
wind, forming dunes. The railroad crosses the deep gorge of the Missis- 
sippi River, then turns northward. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 849 

Merrifield.— 149 miles; Alt. 1,243 feet. Hubert.— 154 miles; Alt. 
1,230 feet. Nisswa.— 156 miles; Alt. 1,255 feet. 

North from Brainerd the railroad traverses a rolling- sandy outwash 
plain. Beautiful lakes, with the finest of fishing and boating. 

Pequot.— 162 miles; Alt. 1,303 feet. Jenkins.— 166 miles; Alt. 
1,293 feet. 

Pequot and Jenkins are located on the outwash plain ; the edge of 
the glacier at one time stood at Pequot, as is shown by the terminal 
moraine, which extends northeast from this place. This moraine occurs 
interruptedly for many miles across the State. It extends south to the 
west of Gull Lake and beyond Whitefish Lake to the northeast. 

Pine River.— 172 miles; Alt. 1,319 feet. Mildred.— 175 miles; Alt. 
1,370 feet. Backus.— 180 miles ; Alt. 1,363 feet. 

Pine River and Mildred are on an outwash plain that was formed 
when the ice had melted back till its front was south of Backus. Many 
beautiful lakes are in this vicinity. 

Hackensack. — 189 miles; Alt. 1,413 feet. Cyphers. — 197 miles; Alt. 
1*411 feet. Walker.— 202 miles; Alt. 1,341 feet. (Cass County.) La- 
porte.— 214 miles ; Alt. 1,352 feet. 

After passing a small outwash plain which lies north of Backus, — 
seen from the right (east) window, for 5 miles after leaving Backus, — 
the course of the railroad is through roughly rolling terminal moraine 
for 25 miles till Laporte is passed. Magnificent lakes abound through- 
out this moraine, offering splendid camping and fishing opportunities. 

Approaching Walker, the State Tuberculosis Sanitarium may be 
seen at the left on a high, forest covered hill overlooking the western 
arm of Leach Lake, About 3 miles north of Walker, the railroad fol- 
lows a valley out through the moraine on the bottom of which is a sandy 
deposit of glacial outwash. 

Laporte lies at the north end of this outwash plain. Garfield Lake 
lies in the north end of this glacial valley. The sand and gravel de- 
posit referred to serves as a dam holding the waters of Garfield Lake 
from draining away. 

Guthrie.— 218 miles; Alt. 1,443 feet. Nary.— 225 miles; Alt. 1,448 
feet. 

Guthrie and Nary lie on a broadly rolling clayey till-plain. With 
the removal of the mixed hardwood forests that grew on these lands 
after the removal of the original pine forests, splendid farms are being 
developed. The soil is well adapted to agriculture. 

Bemidji.— 234 miles; Alt. 1,371 feet. (Crossing G. N. and Soo Rys.) 
(Beltrami County.). 



350 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Bemidji is located on an outwash plain which was formed when 
the edge of the continental glacier stood at Turtle River, Buena Vista, 
and Pinewood. The soil on which the town is built is sandy and gravelly, 
characteristic of outwash deposits. Lake Bemidji is a magnificant sheet 
of water 6 miles in length and 3 to 4 miles in width. The Mississippi 
River is crossed (flowing north) just before reaching the Union Station. 
Lake Plantagenet lies to the south, being drained into Lake Bemidji 
by the Mississippi. The railroad follows the east shore of the lake, 
crossing the Mississippi again as it leaves the lake from the east side. 

Lavinia.— 238 miles; Alt. 1,394 feet. 

This is a beautiful summer resort station, there being fine oppor- 
tunities for boating and fishing, and first-class hotel accommodations. 

Turtle River.— 245 miles ; Alt. 1,366 feet. 

A marked change in the character of the soil is observed after 
crossing Turtle River. The river marks almost the exact boundary be- 
tween the outwash plain on which Bemidji is located and the terminal 
moraine to the north. The soil of the moraine is a splendid quality of 
loam. Typical morainic lakes occur among the hills both east and west 
of Turtle River. The moraine, where crossed by the railroad, is about 
3 miles in width. 

Tenstrike.— 251 miles; Alt. 1,422 feet. Black Duck.— 259 miles; 
Alt. 1,404 feet. 

After leaving the moraine, going north from Turtle River, a till- 
plain is crossing about 3 miles in width, coming to Tenstrike. At Ten- 
strike another moraine is reached, which extends beyond Black Duck. 
The topography is the characteristic rolling landscape which marks the 
deposits made at the edge of the great Continental ice sheet. Many 
beautiful lakes occur among the hills. The soil is somewhat clayey in 
character, and splendid farms are being developed as the timbered lands 
are cleared. 

Funkley.— 266 miles; Alt. 1,416 feet. Kelliher.— 277 miles; Alt. 
1,388 feet. 

Here is crossed a broad tract of undulating till-plain. This was 
originally covered with forests of pine. Since the removal of the pine 
a hardwood forest has succeeded. The character of the timber growth 
indicates a strong productive soil. Good farms are being developed as 
the forests are cleared away. 

Northome.— 275 miles; Alt. 1,451 feet. 

Northome stands on a well-defined terminal moraine. The steeply 
rolling hills and many lakes are characteristic of terminal morainic 
topography. The soil is a loam of splendid texture for cultivation, and 
very productive. 



GEOLOGY FROM A GAR WINDOW 351 

Mizpah.— 280 miles; Alt. 1,409 feet. 

On a continuation of the till-plain on which Funkley and Kelliher 
are located. This plain extends to the west around the moraine on 
which Northome stands. 

GemmelL— 285 miles; Alt. 1,364 feet. 

Another small terminal moraine occurs at Gemmell. This moraine 
marks the boundary of the great Beltrami Swamp, which is a part of 
the bottom of glacial Lake Agassiz. About 4 miles north of Gemmell 
a gravelly and sandy beach ridge is crossed,^the highest or Herman 
Beach of Lake Agassiz. Lake Agassiz during its highest stage extended 
70 miles east to Vermilion Lake. 

Margie.— 298 miles; Alt. 1,286 feet. 

North of the Herman Beach a tract of marsh is crossed, and this 
marsh continues in irregular patches throughout the distance to Inter- 
national Falls. Margie stands on an '' island" of sandy, lake-washed 
till 10 miles in length. This island in the swamp represents a low, broad 
morainic hill that was deposited in Lake Agassiz and was leyeled down 
by its waves. Several well-defined sandy beaches occur east of Margie, 
facing the swamp. Outcropping ledges of granite rock near Margie bear 
glacial scratches or "striae" having an east-southeast direction, showing 
the direction in which the ice moved in this locality. 

Big Falls.— 306 miles; Alt. 1,240 feet. 

A clayey lake-washed till-plain is crossed at Big Falls. This is 
part of an extensive till-plain that was covered by the waters of Lake 
Agassiz and the hills leveled by the waves. After crossing the Big Fork 
River a terminal moraine is crossed 4 miles. A moraine was first de- 
posited here by the Patrician glacier (see Chap. IV.), and this moraine 
was later overridden by the Keewatin glacier. The formation therefore 
consists of the pinkish-red drift of the northern rocky highlands, cov- 
ered by the gray-limestone drift from the northwest, and all finally 
over-strewn with the lake-washed sediments of Lake Agassiz. This 
moraine extends east to Vermilion Lake. Big Fork River strikes the 
south side of this moraine as it flows northward, and is turned east 
by it and forced to cross a ledge of hard granite rock. This is the cause 
of the cascade or falls, seen from the car window between Big Falls and 
Grand Falls. 

Little Fork.— 325 miles; Alt. 1,153 feet. 

On a clayey, wave-washed till-plain of the bottom of glacial Lake 
Agassiz which embraces a wide area extending to the east and west 
and northward to Rainy River. Irregular tracts of swamp occur. Little 
Fork River meanders across the plain parallel in a general way with 
Big Fork River. Four miles south of Little Fork a small terminal mo- 



352 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

raine is crossed which Avas deposited by the ice from the north and 
later overridden by the ice sheet from the northwest. At the north 
side of this moraine a beach of sand and gravel was formed by the 
waters of Lake Agassiz. This beach is crossed about 2 miles south of 
Little Fork Station. 

International Falls. — 341 miles; Alt. 1,140 feet. (Koochiching 
County.) 

North of Little Fork another tract of swamp is crossed. At Nakoda 
the railroad runs along the edge of another overridden moraine, then 
crosses this moraine and follows its western border and that of the 
lake-washed till-plain to International Falls. Here is located one of 
the largest paper manufacturing plants on the North American conti- 
nent. The falls of Rainy River furnish an extensive water power. The 
old Canadian town of Fort Frances is located across the river. Rainy 
River and Rainy Lake, to the east, with many hundreds of beautiful 
rocky isles, is a region of great interest to the tourist. 

WINNIPEG LINE 

Hitterdahl.— 229 miles from St. Paul. Ulen.— 236 miles ; Alt. 1,181 
feet. 

The railroad runs due north across a terminal moraine for about 
5 miles. This moraine grades into the clayey till-plain to the north, 
about Ulen. 

Syre.— 243 miles; Alt. 1,148 feet. 

North of Ulen the railroad lies along the border of the till-plain. 
The Herman Beach lies parallel with the railroad and can be seen from 
the west window (left) for 3 miles, then this beach, which is here 
double, is crossed 2 miles south of Syre. Syre stands on a lower Herman 
Beach. (See Chap. XIII.) 

Twin Valley.— 249 miles; Alt. 1,117 feet. Gary.— 256 miles; Alt. 
1,123 feet. Flaming.— 262 miles; Alt. 1,168 feet. 

These places lie on the sandy eastern edge of the ancient lake 
bottom. The sandy and gravelly Herman Beaches lie at varying dis- 
tances both east and west of the railroad. The beaches are here multiple 
in character. (See Chap. XIV.) 

Fertile.— 268 miles; Alt. 1,164 feet. 

Fertile lies on the sandy off-shore plain. The highest Herman 
Beach lies to the east, 1 mile; the Tintah Beach lies w^est of Fertile 2 
miles. Morainic hills east of the shore-line. Dunes have developed on 
the sandy plain since the disappearance of the lake. These are visible 
from the west (left) window. The Tintah Beach is crossed by the 
railroad 3 miles east of Melvin. West of Melvin, after crossing thf 
Campbell and McCauleyville Beaches, the lake bottom becomes clayey. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 353 

Melviii.— 276 miles ; Alt. 1,056 feet. 

Lower Herman Beaches lie west of Fertile, one of which is crossed 
by the railroad, 3 miles east of Melvin. West of Melvin, after crossing 
two beaches, the lake bottom becomes more clayey. 

Crookston.— 291 miles; Alt. 900 feet. (Polk County.) 

Crookston is located on the fine grained lacustrine sediment of 
Lake Agassiz. In places, the soil is that technically known as Fargo 
clay. Much of the plain is clay loam, a splendid type of soil. 

East Grand Forks.— 318 miles; Alt. 855 feet.- 

From Crookston to East Grand Forks the traveler crosses the 
famous Red River Valley to its axis at the Red River of the North. The 
railroad crosses into North Dakota at Grand Forks and continues to 
Winnipeg, the remainder of the journey being entirely on the bottom 
of the ancient Lake Agassiz. 

MORRIS BRANCH 

Flensburg.— 8 miles from Little Falls ; Alt. 1,233 feet. Swanville.— 
15 miles; Alt. 1,195 feet. 

Undulating clayey till-plain. Red drift. Numerous boulders from 
north of Lake Superior. 

Burtrum.— 20 miles ; Alt. 1,290 feet. 

Terminal moraine, about 4 miles across. 

Grey Eagle.— 24 miles; Alt. 1,245 feet. 

Clayey till-plain. Many beautiful lakes, on till-plain and moraine 
to the east. These glacial soils are of splendid texture and highly 
productive. 

Ward Springs.— 28 miles; Alt. 1,246 feet. 

On west side of till-plain, near beautiful Birch Lake. One mile west 
across sandy terminal moraine about 4 miles. Sauk Lake to the north 
is hemmed in by a clayey moraine. The line between the sandy and 
clayey moraines is the approximate boundary between the red (Lab- 
radorian) drift (east) and the gray (Keewatin) drift (west). 

Sauk Center.— 36 miles; Alt. 1,254 feet. (Crossing G. N. Ry.) 

Oil sandy and gravelly outwash plain. Sandy moraine west of 
Sauk Center about 1 mile in width, followed by clayey moraine 2 miles, 
the latter followed by clayey till-plain. 

Westport.— 47 miles; Alt. 1,354 feet. 

In valley of narrow outwash plain, with clayey till-plain north 
and south. 

Villard.— 52 miles; Alt. 1,380 feet. 

On east side of extensive outwash plain, which extends south and 
east for more than 30 miles. 



154 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Glenwood. — 59 miles; Alt. 1,420 feet. (Pope County.) (Crossiniy'' 
Soo Line.) 

Located at west edge of outwash plain. Clayey terminal moraine 
north, sandy terminal moraine south. City at east end of beautiful Lake 
Minnewaska. 

Starbuck.— 68 miles; Alt. 1,181 feet. 

Located at west end of Lake Minnewaska, in midst of rolling clayey 
terminal moraine. Small outwash plain west. 

Cyrus.— 78 miles; Alt. 1,156 feet. 

Cross south end of moraine, and till-plain east. Town stands on 
clayey moraine. Fine group of morainic lakes Avest. 

Morris. — 87 miles; Alt. 1,148 feet. (Stevens County.) (Crossing 
G. N. Ry.) 

Cross till-plain 4 miles. Outwash plain 1 to 2 miles in w^idth occupies 
valley of Pomme de Terre River, crossed 1 mile east. This ancient 
glacial watercourse extends from the north boundary of Grant County 
almost due south through Stevens County to the valley of the glacial 
River Warren, at the southwest corner of Swift County. 

Deer Creek. — 10 miles from Staples ; Alt. 1,415 feet. 

On outw^ash plain. Clayey till-plain and moraine south. Cross 
sandy moraine west 4 miles. 

Henning. — 18 miles; Alt. 1,458 feet. (Crossing Soo Line.) 

Clayey till-plain. 

Vining. — 24 miles; Alt. 1,408 feet. 

On boundary between clayey till-plain and sandy outwash plain. 

Clitheral.— 29 miles; Alt. 1,369 feet. Battle Lake.— 33 miles; Alt. 
1,376 feet. 

On sandy outwash plain amongst beautiful morainic lakes. 

Underwood. — 41 miles; Alt. 1,364 feet. 

Clayey terminal moraine. Typical morainic pots and kettles, and 
many morainic lakes. 

Fergus Falls.— 52 miles; Alt. 1,214 feet. (Otter Tail County.) 
(Crossing G. N. Ry.) 

City located amid the hills of the ^reat Fergus Falls moraine, prob- 
ably the most striking and majestic terminal moraine in the State. 
Typical morainic knobs, pots and kettles, and lakes abound. Narrow 
outwash plains, ancient watercourses, to the north and east. Alluvial 
outwash plain in valley of Otter Tail River 3 miles west. 

French.— 58 miles; Alt. 1,130 feet. 

Cross outwash plain and moraine east. Till-plain 2 miles in width 
bordering basin of glacial Lake Agassiz. Herman Beach crossed 2 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 355 

miles west of French. Norcross Beach crossed 2 miles west of Herman 
Beach. 

P'oxhome.— 63 miles; Alt. 1,052 feet. 

On the level plain of the bottom of glacial Lake Agassiz. The plain 
here consists of till leveled and washed by the waves of the ancient 
lake. Cross Tintah Beach 1 mile east. 

Everdell.— 68 miles; Alt. 1,015 feet. 

Flat plain of bottom of Lake Agassiz. Town located on Campbell 
Beach. 

Breckenridge. — 77 miles; Alt. 982 feet. (Wilkin County.) 

Four miles Avest of Everdell cross McCauleyville Beach. West of 
this beach is the fine lacustrine clayey sediment deposited from the 
deep waters of Lake Agassiz. Breckenridge is on the Red Eiver of the 
North, the axial drainage of the Red River Valley. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 

THE SOO LINE 

St. Paul.— miles; Alt. 732 feet. (Ramsey County.) Cardigan 
Junction. — 7 miles; Alt. 903 feet. New Brighton (Bulwer Junction). — 
11 miles; Alt. 912 feet. 

The line from the deep valley of the Mississippi is by an old valley 
partially filled with drift. The hills are red drift for 4 miles, then the 
red drift is overlaid with gray drift, and the topography becomes some- 
what softened. The line west from Cardigan Junction to New Brighton 
and Minneapolis is through gray drift hills. A terrace of glacial sand 
and gravel a mile in wddth borders the Mississippi approaching Min- 
neapolis. (For through trains between St. Paul and Minneapolis see 
Chap. XXVIII.) 

Minneapolis. — 11 miles; Local Station, Alt. 820 feet. (Hennepin 
County.) 

Leaving Milwaukee station the railroad runs on a gravelly terrace 
of the glacial Mississippi River to Camden station. The Platteville 
limestone, underlaid by the soft and friable St. Peter sandstone, appears 
capping the cliff west of tracks. West from Camden a higher glacial 
terrace of the Mississippi is crossed about 1 mile. To about 1 mile 
west of Crystal (crossing G. N. Ry.) the course is across the southern 
end of an extensive gravelly outwash plain that extends far north 
along the Mississippi River. Twin Lakes and a tract of dune sand 
are crossed, included in the outwash plain. The outwash plain is bor- 
dered on the west by gently rolling (gray) drift, which is clayey in 
character, and in places the topography is hilly with lakes and sloughs, 
indicating terminal moraine. 

HameL— 28 miles ; Alt. 987 feet. 

The morainic till-plain east gives way to a more broadly rolling 
clayey till-plain. 

Loretto.— 34 miles; Alt. 989 feet. 

At head of Sarah Lake, amid morainic hills, clayey in character. 

Rockford.— 39 miles; Alt. 957 feet. 

Railroad skirts north side of Sarah Lake, through rolling morainic. 
hills, crossing- Crow River. The Crow Valley was cut through this mo- 
raine by the waters of the Upper St. Croix River when that stream dis- 
chargofl into the Mississippi at Delano, and the waters flowed in the 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 857 

opposite direction from that of the present stream. (See Chap. XVII.) 
The North Fork of the Crow now occupies the old valley of the Missis- 
sippi above Rockford to the Eden Valley. (See Chap. XVI.) 

Buffalo.— 49 miles; Alt. 975 feet. (Wright County.) 

Buffalo Lake west, surrounded by morainic hills, and many small 
"pots and kettles." Rolling till-plain east. 

Maple Lake.— 57 miles ; Alt. 1,047 feet. 

Rolling till-plain, clayey. Maple Lake east. Moraine 3 miles in 
width crossed west. 

Anandale. — 63 miles; Alt. 1,059 feet. South Haven. — 68 miles; 
Alt. 1,097 feet. 

Three miles east of Anandale pass off from moraine onto undulat- 
ing outwash sandy plain. Cedar Lake at right. Pleasant Lake and 
Clear Lake north (right). John Lake south (left). Lake Mary passed 
at right, 

Kimball.— 74 miles; Alt. 1,132 feet. 

West of South Haven the railroad swings across a hilly, clayey mo- 
raine, and crosses the south- edge of the west arm of the outwash plain 
which lies about Anandale and South Haven. This western arm of the 
sandy outwash plain is known as Kimball's Prairie. 

Watkins.— 79 miles; Alt. 1,157 feet. 

A moraine 5 miles wide is crossed betAveen Kimball and Watkins. 
Watkins is on the edge of a clayey rolling till-plain. 

Eden Valley.— 86 miles ; Alt. 1,118 feet. 

East of Eden Valley a broad glacial channel is crossed which was 
the outlet of a glacial lake which once occupied a considerable area in 
Meeker County now drained by the North Crow. The old channel was 
occupied by the Mississippi River before the glacier of the last ice inva- 
sion compelled it to take its present course. It then flowed south from 
Eden Valley by the present course of the Crow to Delano and the present 
Lake Minnetonka. (See Chap. XVL) 

Paynesville. — 95 miles; Alt. 1,167 feet. 

Rolling till-plain w^est of Eden Valley 3 miles, then cross clayey mo- 
raine 2 miles; Rice Lake north, Cedar Lake south. Sandy moraine 4 
miles, to sandy outwash plain which lies along the moraine, and from 
which it was formed. 

Georgeville.— 106 miles ; Alt. 1,238 feet. Belgrade.— 110 miles ; Alt. 
1„268 feet. Brooten.— 117 miles; Alt. 1,308 feet. Sedan.— 125 miles; 
Alt. 1,330 feet. 

Broadly undulating sandy outwash plain, with many lakes and 
sloughs in depressions. Crow Lake south of Belgrade. Skunk Lake 
south of Brooten. (Brooten-Duluth Line see p. 364.) 



358 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Glenwood. — 133 miles; Alt. 1,388 feet. (Pope County.) (Crossing- 
Morris Branch N. P. Ry.) 

At head of Minnewaska Lake, on west margin of outwash plain. 
Sandy moraine south; clayey moraine west to Lowry. (Winnipeg Line, 
see p. 360.) 

Lowry.— 142 miles ; Alt. 1,363 feet. Farwell.— 148 miles ; Alt. 1,335 
feet. Kensington. — 152 miles; Alt. 1,304 feet. Hoffman. — 158 miles; 
Alt. 1,241 feet. 

Cross Little Chippewa River at Lowry. Rolling till-plain to Farwell. 
Hilly moraine at Kensington, coming into the famous Lake Park region. 
Cross Chippewa River east of Hoffman. Rolling ground moraine or till- 
plain, w^th many small lakes. 

Barrett. — 165 miles; Alt. 1,161 feet. 

Barrett is located in a glacial channel on sandy and gravelly out- 
wash. At the time the edge of the ice sheet was about where Fergus 
Falls and Elbow Lake now are a large river of ice water laden with sand 
and gravel flowed down this valley, past Morris to the Minnesota Valley. 

Elbow Lake.— 172 miles ; Alt. 1,206 feet. 

A clayey moraine, quite hilly, lies about Elbow Lake. Long Lake 
lies 3 miles east in rolling till-plain. Worm and Round Lakes are among 
the morainic hills south. Elbow Lake, named for its elbow-like curve, 
lies at the right, west. At the Great Northern Railway crossing the glacial 
outwash channel in which Mustinka River runs is crossed. 

Wendell.— 179 miles; Alt. 1,118 feet. 

A long narrow moraine borders the outwash channel of Mustinka 
River, which marks the edge of the ice sheet when this channel was 
formed. Wendell is on the boundary between the moraine and the rolling 
till-plain to the west. 

Nashua.— 189 miles; Alt. 1,000 feet. (Crossing G. N. Ry. west.) 

The Herman Beach, the highest shore-line of Lake Agassiz, is cross- 
ed 4 miles west of Wendell. Two miles west of this beach and parallel 
with it is the Norcross Beach. Two Tintah Beaches are crossed before 
reaching Nashua. Lake-washed clayey till of the bottom of Lake Agassiz 
extends between these beaches. A tract of lake-washed sand lies east 
of Nashua. 

Tenney.— 196 miles ; Alt. 988 feet. 

Gently undulating lake-washed till, smoothed by the waves of Lake 
Agassiz. The Bois des Sioux River marks the axis of the ancient lake 
bottom. A mile west of Tenney the Campbell Beach is crossed and the 
McCauleyville Beach near the river. All these beaches converge into 
Traverse Gap at the south, which was the outlet of Lake Agassiz during 
the time of formation of these beaches. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 359 

Fairmount, N. D., is across the Bois des Sioux River, 
(For Geology from a Car WindoAv in North Dakota, see "The Story 
of the Prairies," p. 350.) 

ST. PAUL-DULUTH LINE 

St. Paul.— miles. (Ramsey County.) 

From Union Depot the train pulls out through a valley having a 
filling of outwash gravel and sand, followed by rolling morainic hills. 
At the crossing of the Northern Pacific tracks east of Lake Wabasso 
northward to Cardigan Junction is outwash gravel, and to the north 
extends a tract of dune sand. Beyond the dune tract is rolling till-plain, 
and south of Bald Eagle Lake is a flat, sandy outwash plain. 

Bald Eagle. — 15 miles from St. Paul; Alt. 927 feet. (Crossing 
N. P. Ry.) 

Bald Eagle Lake lies at the left and White Bear Lake a mile to the 
east (right). Rolling till-plain lies between. 

Withrow.— 20 miles ; Alt. 978 feet. 

On a small outwash plain, which is surrounded by rolling morainic 
hills. 

Marine.— 30 miles ; Alt. 913 feet. Copas.— 32 miles; Alt. 823 feet. 

On the east edge of moraine, which is bordered by terraces of glacial 
St. Croix River. Broad terrace cut in limestone rock at Copas. Three 
miles north the deep valley of the St. Croix is crossed by a drawbridge 
into Wisconsin, and the line continues in that State for 50 miles re- 
crossing St. Croix River near Danbury into Minnesota. 

Danbury. — 106 miles. Markville. — 113 miles. Cloverton. — 118 
miles. Kingsdale. — 123 miles. Belden. — 128 miles. Harlis. — 135 miles. 
Superior, Wis. — 161 miles. Duluth. — 167 miles. 

At Danbury the St. Croix is crossed, a broad glacial channel. The 
railroad runs on the broad level terrace of the ancient glacial river 2 
miles beyond Markville. The floodplain of the glacial valley, marked 
by the level terrace plains which border the deep valley in which the 
river now flows, is here 2 miles wide. About Cloverton is gently rolling 
till-plain, with low hills and swamps. At Kingsdale, Tamarack River is 
crossed, in a region of tamarack swamps, and tree-covered till-plains. 
Boulders from the Lake Superior country are common. At Belden and 
Harlis are moraines, sandy and gravelly in character, with bounders. 
The railroad re-enters Wisconsin north of Harlis, and crosses the great 
South Copper Range, descending from the Range to the great Red Clay 
Basin of Lake Duluth to Superior, then crosses the mouth of St. Louis 
River to Duluth. The entrance to Duluth is along the foot of the high- 
land which lies north of Lake Superior. The approach to the station 



360 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

in Dulutii was cut and tunneled through hard slaty rocks of Keweena- 
wan age, the station being entered through a tunnel bored through the 
hard rock a distance of 1,031 feet. 

WINNIPEG LINE 

Forada.— 143 miles from St. Paul ; Alt. 1,413 feet. 

From Glenwood to Forada the railroad runs on the western edge of 
the sandy outwash plain that has been followed from Paynesville. A 
hilly moraine lies to the west, clayey in character. Maple and Reno 
Lakes are among the morainic hills. 

Alexandria. — 150 miles; Alt. 1,424 feet. (Douglas County.) (Cross- 
ing G. N. Ry.) 

Alexandria is located amidst a beautiful group of lakes which occupy 
depressions in sandy outwash plain. The outwash is related to the big 
sandy moraine which lies to the w^est. Lakes Winona and Agnes west 
of the city, and Geneva east (north of Great Northern tracks) are fine 
lakes. Sandy moraine east of Great Northern crossing. East point of 
Lake Le Homme Dieu 2 miles north. Carlos Lake lies to the west and 
north. 

Carlos.— 157 miles; Alt. 1,366 feet. Miltona.— 162 miles; Alt. 1,401 
feet. 

Outwash plain of sand and gravel, across which meanders Long 
Prairie River draining the group of lakes, is crossed to Miltona, which is 
on the big sandy moraine referred to. Lake Miltona 2 miles west. Pass 
Lake Irene north. 

Parker's Prairie. — 170 miles; Alt. 1,464 feet. 

Sandy moraine continues 4 miles north of Miltona, where broad undu- 
lating sandy outwash plain, known as Park:er's Prairie, is crossed. Lake 
Adley west and Horsehead Lake east, and many small lakes. Four 
miles north a narrow sandy moraine is crossed, then sandy outwash in 
the valley in which Wing River flows. A mile north of Wing River 
another narrow moraine is crossed, beyond which is another outwash 
plain. The moraine from which the outwash was formed is now crossed, 
being roughly rolling hills with many pots and kettles. This is the 
same moraine that was crossed at Miltona. The range of strongly roll- 
ing hills extending from Lake Christina in northwestern Douglas County 
north and east to Deer Creek, 6 miles east of Henning, is locally known 
as Leaf Mountain. It has been called by Professor Warren Upham the 
Leaf Hills. Professor Upham says: ''These are the most massive mo- 
rainic accumulations in Minnesota. In their highest portions they rise 
200 to 300 feet above tlie surrounding country and above their bases.'' 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 361 

Hemiing. — 183 miles; Alt. 1,434 feet. (Crossing Morris Branch 
N. P. Ry.) 

On rolling till-plain. The rolling hills of the Leaf Hills moraine are 
seen 2 miles east. 

Otter Tail.— 192 miles; Alt. 1,354 feet. 

On large outwash plain, formed from moraine to the west and north 
to be presently crossed. Otter Tail Lake 2 miles west, a large lake. Rush 
Lake east, with many small lakes north. 

Richville.— 199 miles; Alt. 1,353 feet. Dent.— 205 miles; Alt. 1,358 
feet. Vergas.— 214 miles; Alt. 1,401 feet. 

These towns are all in or "among" the great moraine named by 
Professor Upham the Fergus Falls moraine. Here is the Lake Park 
Region par excellence. Large lakes, small lakes, lakes deep, lakes shal- 
low, hills high, hills low, the greatest topographic confusion that could 
well be conceived. An authority cited by N. H. Winchell places the 
number of lakes in Otter Tail County as 1,029 by actual count, not includ- 
ing small ponds and sloughs. 

Detroit.— 227 miles; Alt. 1,361 feet. (Becker County.) 

The railroad passes upon the undulating surface of an outwash 
plain of sand and gravel 5 miles south of Detroit. The splendid lake 
east is Lake Detroit, occupying a large basin in the outwash plain. To 
the west are Lakes Melissa, Sallie, and St. Clair. This is one of the 
finest groups of lakes in the State or the United States. This group, 
like the group at Alexandria just passed, are said by travelers to vie 
in beauty and natural grandeur with the most famed European lakes. 

Westbury.— 234 miles; Alt. 1,454 feet. 

Westbury is on the great moraine which continues many miles to 
the north and east. Floyd Lake and a group of small but beautiful 
lakes east of Westbury. 

Callaway.— 239 miles ; Alt. 1,358 feet. 

Callaway is on the rolling till-plain which merges into the moraine 
to the east. East of Callaway 4 miles is Rice Lake, which is drained 
by Pelican River. One-half mile north of Rice Lake is Buffalo Lake, 
which is drained by Buffalo River. It is interesting to observe that 
Pelican River carries Avater from Rice Lake in turn to Lakes Campbell, 
Floyd, Elsa, Detroit, Sallie, Melissa, Pelican, Lizzie, and Prairie, thence 
south by an ancient channel noAv occupied by Pelican River near to 
Fergus Falls, where it joins the Otter Tail or Red, its waters finally 
reaching the Red River of the North at Breekenridge. Buffalo River 
before entering Buffalo Lake carries water from a group of lakes to 
the east, one of which group is Height of Land Lake which is drained 
bv the Otter Tail or Red. The Buffalo thus carries water from near 



362 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Height of Land Lake past Rice Lake whence it winds westward crossing 
the Herman Beach of Lake Agassiz at Muskoda, and finally reaching the 
Red River of the North at Georgetown, 15 miles below (north) of Moor- 
head, and 60 miles beloAv Breckenridge where the Pelican enters. The 
Mississippi flows north 6 miles east of Upper Rice Lake, and Lake Itasca 
is 10 miles south of Upper Rice Lake, from which water goes to the 
Gulf of Mexico. 

Ogema.— 247 miles; Alt. 1,266 feet. 

White Earth Indian agency is located 4 miles east amid a group of 
morainic lakes the largest of which is White Earth Lake. The morainic 
hills are strongly marked in character, rising 150 to 200 feet above their 
bases. 

Waubun.— 253 miles; Alt. 1,239 feet. Mahnomen.— 262 miles; Alt. 
1,213 feet. (Mahnomen County.) Bejou.— 271 miles; Alt. 1,222 feet. 
Winger.— 277 miles ; Alt. 1,231 feet. 

After leaving the moraine at Ogema the railroad traverses a rolling 
till-plain having a clayey character, the soil of which is excellent. 

Erskine.— 287 miles; Alt. 1,192 feet. (Crossing G. N. Ry.) 

Four miles south the railroad passes upon a sandy moraine, marked 
by rolling hills and many lakes. The Herman Beach, or highest shore 
line of Lake Agassiz, is crossed 2 miles south of Erskine. The town stands 
on the clayey lake-washed till-plain which was the bottom of Lake Agas- 
siz. Several small lakes, shore lagoons, lie west of town, and a flat 
marshy sand plain north, formed by waves upon a shallow bottom. 

Cisco.— 292 miles; Alt. 1,169 feet. Brooks.— 297 miles; Alt. 1,129 
feet. Plummer.— 304 miles ; Alt. 1,127 feet. 

Cisco is on sandy wave-washed lake bottom. Beach 2 miles north. 
Brooks is on wave-washed till of Lake Agassiz bottom. North of a 
wave-washed sand plain, which is crossed by Hill and Lost Rivers, 
Plummer stands on the wave-washed till-plain. 

Hazel.— 312 miles; Alt. 1,114 feet. Thief River Falls.— 319 miles; 
Alt. 1,127 feet. (Pennington County.) 

After crossing Clearwater River at Plummer the lake-washed till 
continues to and beyond Thief River Falls, marshy depressions and 
sandy low swells marking imperfect leveling by the lake waves. 

GOODRIDGE LINE 

Silverton. — 7 miles from Thief River Falls. Mavie. — 13 miles. 
Goodridge. — 19 miles. 

This line runs east across the lake-washed till-plain. The plain 
was covered by shallow lake waters during the highest or Herman stage 
of Lake Agassiz. The irregular sandy patches and marshy depressions 
represent morRines that were leveled by the waves of the lake. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 3(J3 

Anita. — 328 miles ; Alt. 1,152 feet. 

Anita stands on a leveled moraine deposited in Lake Agassiz and 
leveled by its waves. A sandy beach lies on the east border of this 
moraine, and another beach on the west, near Anita. Five beaches are 
crossed in as many miles toward New Folden. 

New Folden.— 337 miles; Alt. 1,097 feet. Strandquist.— 348 miles; 
Alt. 1,064 feet. 

Middle River is crossed at New Folden, and north a tract of lake- 
washed sand, which grades into lake-washed sandy till to and beyond 
Strandquist. 

Karlstad.— 355 miles ; Alt. 1,048 feet. 

Karlstad stands on the Campbell Beach, which is here represented 
by 4 sandy shore-lines. Marshes are hemmed in between the beach 
ridges. Lake-washed sand west. 

Halma.— 362 miles; Alt. 998 feet. Bronson.— 368 miles; Alt. 959 
feet. Lancaster.— 378 miles; Alt. 908 feet. Orleans.— 386 miles; Alt. 
835 feet. 

Campbell Beach crossed west of Halma. The plain is mostly lake 
deposited sand, with tracts of lake- washed sandy till. Lancaster to 
Orleans mostly lake-Avashed clayey till. Sandy beach is crossed east 
of Orleans. 

Noyes. — 399 miles ; Alt. 792 feet. Winnipeg. — 465 miles. 

From Orleans to Noyes the plain is that of fine lacustrine silt depos- 
ited in the axial or deeper part of Lake Agassiz. This fine lake sediment 
continues to Winnipeg. 

THE WHEAT LINE 

Rosewood.— 8 miles from Thief River Falls ; Alt. 1,133 feet. 

Four beaches are crossed between Thief River Falls and Rosewood, 
with tracts of lake-washed sand between. 

Viking.— 14 miles ; Alt. 1,070 feet. 

Four beaches are crossed between Rosewood and Viking, with inter- 
vening marshy "lagoons" and clayey wave-washed till. Two miles west 
of Viking the large Campbell Beach is crossed. A belt 1 mile wide of 
clayey lake-washed till lies parallel with this beach, a narrow belt of 
lake-washed sand intervening. Lake-washed sand lies west. 

Radium.— 24 miles ; Alt. 925 feet. 

On an island of lake-washed till. A beach is crossed about a mile west. 

Warren.— 32 miles; Alt. 855 feet. (Marshall County.) (Crossing 
G. N. Ry.) March.— 38 miles ; Alt. 827 feet. Alvarado.— 42 miles; Alt, 
814 feet. Oslo (N. D.).— 49 miles. 



364 THE ISTORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

From Warren west to the Ked Kiver of the North at Oslo the Hat 
plain is that of the deep bottom of Lake Agassiz. The sediment from 
which the soil is formed is fine grained compact silt and clay. 

DULUTH-BROOTEN LINE 

Duluth.— miles; Alt. 631 feet. (St. Louis County.) 

Leaving Union Station, Duluth, the railroad is cut and tunneled, 
through pre-Cambrian (volcanic) rocks, passing under Superior street, 
crossing the mouth of the St. Louis River by a swinging bridge to Supe- 
rior, Wisconsin. From Superior to the point where the railroad re-enters 
Minnesota east of Frogner the red clay plain of the bottom of glacial 
Lake Duluth is crossed. 

Frogner (Wis.).— 26 miles from Duluth. Black Hoof (Minn.).— 34 
miles ; Alt. 972 feet. 

The Superior red clay continues to Black Hoof. A moraine a mile 
in width, which was leveled by the waves of Lake Duluth, lies west of 
Black Hoof. Another moraine, similarly leveled by wave action, lies 
east of Nemadji. Betw^een these moraines is lake-washed till, sandy 
toward the north. 

Nemadji.— 42 miles ; Alt. 1,060 feet. 

The highest beach or shore-line of Lake Duluth lies both north and 
south of Nemadji, extending around the west end of Lake Duluth the 
western limit being at Moose Lake. This beach is 400 feet above the level 
of Lake Superior. (See Chap. XX.) 

Moose Lake. — 50 miles; Alt. 1,107 feet. (Crossing over N. P. Ry.) 

The railroad station is on the high terrace of glacial St. Louis River. 
Moose Head Lake lies in the channel of the outlet of glacial Lake Nemadji. 

Denham. — 62 miles; Alt. 1,205 feet. (For Plummer-Winnipeg Line 
see p. 360.) Arthyde. — 70 miles; Alt. 1,238 feet. Solana. — 73 miles; 
Alt. 1,320 feet. 

The railroad runs mostly through a moraine formed by the glacier 
which pushed westward from the basin of Lake Superior (Labradorian 
glacier). Rolling till-plains are both north and south. The railroad cuts 
through the drift into slate rock northeast of Denham. The soil is 
generally clayey. This is the red drift deposited by the Labradorian 
glacier of the Wisconsin stage. Boulders from the hard-rock region of 
Lake Superior are common. This is fertile agricultural land, well adapt- 
ed to red clover. (See Chap. XXVI.) 

McGrath.— 81 miles; Alt. 1,241 feet. Redtop.— 90 miles; Alt. 1,283 
feet. 

A large moraine lies south, and extends around the south and west 
sides of Mille Lacs Lake, hemming in the waters of this lake and prevent- 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 365 

iiig their escape southward. A small "island" of granitic rock pro- 
jects up through the drift 2 miles west of McGrath. Another larger 
outcropping granitic ridge is cut through by Snake River 7 miles south. 
These are remnants of Old Minnesota which resisted the wearing action 
of the ice sheets that passed over them, and they stand as monuments 
of an ancient landscape. 

Wahkon.— 96 miles; Alt. 1,270 feet. Onamia.— 104 miles; Alt. 
1,260 feet. 

Wahkon is at the south point of Mille Lacs Lake, in the midst of 
morainic hills. This moraine continues beyond Onamia. Here Rum 
River is crossed, a small pooling stream by which the waters of Mille Lacs 
Lake overflow to the Mississippi. Onamia, Nassawac, and Ogechie Lakes 
are entered and passed through by Rum River bet^veen its point of exit 
from Mille Lacs Lake and Onamia. 

Hillman.— 116 miles ; Alt. 1,320 feet. 

West from Onamia is rolling till-plain or ground moraine, clayey in 
character, with few lakes. The soil is good. Hillman stands on a moraine 
about 2 miles in width. West the rolling till-plain continues to Pierz 
(or Genola). 

Genola.— 127 miles; Alt. 1,162 feet. 

Genola is on the east edge of an outwash plain. At the time when 
the Labradorian glacier lay over Mille Lacs Lake and the country west 
the ice waters from its melting passed this way to the Mississippi, and 
this and other sandy outwash plains were deposited from its waters. 

Granite rocks are thinly covered with drift in places, and granite is 
quarried near Genola. 

Vawter.— 135 mile ; Alt. 1,109 feet. 

Vawter is farther down this ancient water-way. Platte River crosses 
this outwash plain from the north, descending by a narrower glacial 
channel past Royalton to the Mississippi. The Platte brings water from 
a group of lakes that lie in hollows in the moraine west of Mille Lacs 
Lake, one of which group is separated from Mille Lacs Lake by less 
than half a mile. 

Bowlus.— 145 miles; Alt. 1,109 feet. Holdingford.— 152 miles; Alt. 
1,143 feet. 

A small till-plain intervenes between the ancient watercourse at 
Vawter and the great outwash plain which borders the Mississippi below 
Little Falls. 

Crossing (over) Northern Pacific Ry. Mississippi River crossed west. 

Bowlus and Holdingford are on rolling till-plain or ground moraine, 
clayey in character. 

Albany. — 160 miles; Alt. 1,244 feet. (Crossing Great Northern Ry.) 



366 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Strongly rolling moraine to Albany. Many hills rise 100 to 150 feet 
above their bases. "Pots and kettles" such as are characteristic of 
strong moraines. The boundary between the red (Labradorian) drift 
and the gray (Keewatin) drift is 1 mile east of Alban3^ 

New Munich.— 169 miles; Alt. 1,191 feet. 

E-olling till-plain with many lakes and sloughs west from Albany. 
Town stands on sandy outwash plain, an ancient watercourse over the 
flat bottom of which Sauk Eiver now meanders. 

Greenwald. — 175 miles; Alt. 1,263 feet. Elrosa. — 180 miles; Alt. 
1,313 feet. 

Clayey rolling moraine crossed west of New Munich, which merges 
into rolling till-plain 10 miles in width. The great Paynesville-Glenwood 
outwash plain extends 4 miles east of Brooten. 

MOOSE LAKE-PLUMMER LINE 

Kettle River.— 57 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,181 feet. 

Undulating till-plain. Cross Kettle River. Moraine 3 miles in width 
west of Moose Lake, many boulders. Outwash channel of glacial drain- 
age runs through the moraine, now^ occupied by small tributary of 
Kettle River. Undulating till-plain west to Automba and Lawler. 

Law^ler. — 71 miles; Alt. 1,313 feet. 

Moraine 2 miles in width, with till-plain west. Four miles west of 
Lawler a hilly moraine 1 mile in width, west of till-plain, marks the 
western limit of the deposits of the Labradorian glacier (red drift), in 
this locality. Between Lawler and McGregor a beach ridge is crossed, 
which marks the eastern shore of glacial Lake Aitkin. 

McGregor. — 79 miles; Alt. 1,234 feet. (For Cayuna Range Line, see 
p. 368.) 

Sandy plain, the bottom of glacial Lake Aitkin. Two miles west of 
McGregor another sandy beach is crossed. This beach runs entirely 
around a rolling tract of moraine which formed an island in Lake Aitkin. 
The railroad crosses the extreme east end of the island. Axtell stands on 
the beach at the east end of the island. The railroad follows the beach 
about a mile, then passing on to a marsh that extends to Palisade. 

Palisade.— 91 miles; Alt. 1,236 feet. 

The town stands on a beach which runs entirely around another mo- 
rainic island the west side of which extends northeast parallel with the 
Mississippi River to Libby, 7 miles. 

Bain.— 98 miles ; Alt. 1,268 feet. 

West of Palisade the railroad crosses the Mississippi and Willow 
Rivers, on a sandy plain of lake-washed materials. The western shore 
of Lake Aitkin is marked by a sandy beach, the end of which is passed 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 367 

toward Bain. East of Bain and north of Palisade are two islands each 
surrounded by sandy beaches. 

Swatara.— 106 miles; Alt. 1,297 feet. Shovel Lake.— 112 miles; 
Alt. 1,340 feet. 

The railroad runs on or near the east edge of a rolling hilly moraine. 
To the east and north the surface is gray drift overlying the red. To 
the west it is the red drift of the Patrician ice sheet. 

Remer.— 122 miles; Alt. 1,346 feet. Boy River.— 135 miles; Alt. 
1,310 feet. 

Rolling till-plain or ground moraine, with marshy tracts and lakes 
intervening. 

Crossing Leech Lake River. Leech Lake 2 miles west. The rail- 
road runs around the north end of Leech Lake across till-plain along 
south edge of large outwash plain to Cass Lake. 

Cass Lake.— 164 miles; Alt. 1,334 feet. Bemidji.— 180 niiles; Alt. 
1,354 feet. (Beltrami County.) Scribner. — 187 miles. Pinewood. — 195 
miles; Alt. 1,424 feet. 

For a distance of 40 miles the railroad traverses the great sandy 
outwash plain. Cass Lake lies to the north and Pike Bay to the south. 
Many smaller lakes occupy depressions in the sandy plain. Approaching 
Bemidji splendid clayey till-plains lie to the north and to the south, and 
these plains have excellent soil. The Mississippi River is crossed at 
Bemidji. 

Leonard.— 202 miles ; Alt. 1,449 feet. 

Leonard is on the moraine w^hich extends to Lengby and to the 
Height of Land, and beyond, and eastward north of the great outwash 
plain which has just been crossed. When the great Keewatin ice sheet 
lay where Leonard now is, and southward and eastward, the great out- 
wash plain was formed from the flood waters of its melting. 

Clearbrook. — 210 miles; Alt. 1,339 feet. Gonvick. — 215 miles; Alt. 
1,287 feet. Gully.— 221 miles; Alt. 1,262 feet. Trail.— 224 miles; Alt. 
1,212 feet. 

Rolling till-plain Gonvick to Gully. Gully and Trail are at the 
ancient shore-line of Lake Agassiz. A sandy beach lies north of Gully. 
Trail is on a marshy plain betw^een two beach ridges. An arm of the 
great Beltrami Swamp is crossed west of Trail. 

Oklee.— 233 miles; Alt. 1,155 feet. Plummer.— 243 miles; Alt. 
1,127 feet. 

Cross Lost River at Oklee. Two miles west of Trail a sandy beach 
ridge is crossed in the swamp. Lake-washed till to Plummer, sandy west 
of Oklee. Cross end of sandv beach 2 miles east of Plummer. 



368 THE 8 TORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

CAYUNA RANGE LINE 

East Lake. — 77 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,251 feet. 

West of Lawler a moraine 2 miles in width is crossed, with till-plain 
east and west. Moraine north, with beach of glacial Lake Aitkin border- 
ing the. moraine on its north side. A bay of Lake Aitkin extended to the 
town of East Lake, which stands on the beach. Westward the railroad 
runs a mile south of the beach on a moraine to Darina and Rossburg. 

Darina.— 86 miles ; Alt. 1,252 feet. Rossburg.— 91 miles ; Alt. 1,228 
feet. (Crossing Nor. Pac. Uy. east.) 

Hilly moraine south, which extends west and north around the 
ancient lake. It was this moraine which caused the damming of the 
waters of the glacial upper Mississippi and forming Lake Aitkin. 

Aitkin.— 97 miles ; Alt. 1,205 feet. (Aitkin County.) 

Aitkin is on the southern edge of the sandy plain of the ancient lake 
bottom. The sandy beach ridge which marks the shore-line of the ancient 
lake is a few rods south of the city, bordering the moraine just referred 
to. The beach continues westward about 15 miles to the Mississippi River, 
where it turns on the north side of the river and extends 25 or 30 miles 
in a northeasterly direction forming the west shore of the ancient lake. 
The Mississippi River cuts through the moraine, and the cutting down of 
the river's channel allowed the waters of the lake to be drained away, 
and the lake ceased to be. 

Iron Hub.— 105 miles; Alt. 1,241 feet. Cayuna.— 107 miles; Alt. 
1,253 feet. Crosby.— 110 miles; Alt. 1,265 feet. Ironton.— 112 miles. 
Riverton. — 115 miles; Alt. 1,224 feet. 

Iron Hub is on the sandy plain of the ancient lake bottom, 1 mile 
from the shore-line. Cayuna and Deerwood are among the morainic 
hills and lakes. Cayuna is south of Rabbit Lake, and the ancient shore- 
line runs north of this lake. The outlet of the ancient lake, now the chan- 
nel of the Mississippi, is 2 miles west of the western end of Rabbit Lake. 
Crosby is located on a sandy outwash plain, which was formed from the 
ice which built the moraine. Serpent Lake lies to the east. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 

The Iron Range Lines 
DULUTH AND IRON RANGE RAILROAD 

Duluth.— miles; Alt. 609 feet. (St. Louis County.) Knife River.— 
19 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 626 feet. Two Harbors.— 27 miles ; Alt. 637 
feet. Waldo.— 30 miles ; Alt. 1,058 feet. Alger.— 37 miles ; Alt. 1,452 feet. 
Drummond.— 39 miles ; Alt. 1,311 feet. Allen.— 73 miles ; Alt. 1,507 feet. 

From Duluth to Two Harbors the railroad follows the shore of Lake 
Superior. At Two Harbors the steep ascent to the highland is begun. 
Waldo is on the lake-washed clayey till, the highest shore-line of glacial 
Lake Duluth being crossed a mile north. A moraine is crossed at Alger. 
North is a stony wooded till-plain. A still higher moraine lies north- 
east. It is a range of stony hills seen at Highland and Drummond. 
Volcanic rocks on Avhich the moraine rests are seen at the northwest 
edge near Brimson. At Brimson is a sandy outwash plain, and north of 
this is till-plain to Norman. This plain is much cut by small stream 
valleys. Small lakes occupy depressions at Bassett. A sandy moraine 
is crossed at Norman, bordering which on the south is a gravelly glacial 
watercourse, now traversed by St. Louis River. 

Aurora.— 80 miles; Alt. 1,476 feet. Biwabik.— 87 miles; Alt. 1,426 
feet. McKinley.— 91 miles; Alt. 1,439 feet. Sparta.— 96 miles; Alt. 
1,434 feet. Eveleth.— 100 miles; Alt. 1,574 feet. 

Allen is on till-plain, but some volcanic Keweenawan rocks pro- 
trude. Sandy moraine again crossed west, and then till-plain from 
Aurora to Biwabik and Eveleth. The Giant's Range, now called the Mes- 
abi Range, lies to the north. Embarrass River, here broadened into a 
long lake, is crossed east of Biwabik. The large valley was formed by 
glacial flood waters which gathered to pass through this gap in the Range 
at the time when the ice edge lay at the north of the Range. 

Mesaba. — 77 miles; Alt. 1,519 feet. Embarrass. — 84 miles; Alt. 
1,425 feet. Tower.— 95 miles ; Ely.— 116 miles ; Alt. 1,416 feet. Winton.— 
121 milles ; Alt. 1,328 feet. 

Mesaba is on the till-plain which lies immediately south of the Mes- 
abi Range. A branch line runs east parallel with the Range, crossing 
a swamp on upper Partridge River, to the large sandy moraine which 
lies east of the great Range. From Mesaba north watch for iron ore 
in the grade cuts ! On the way to Embarrass the railroad crosses the 
axis of the great Mesabi Range. This high ridge, which is an old, 

869 



370 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

worn down mountain range, was crossed by the ice sheets and the soil 
swept clean. The rocks now are bare. Ice markings on polished rock 
surfaces show the direction of the last ice movement to have been a 
little west of south. Islands of stony clayey till surrounded by swamp 
are crossed Embarrass to Soudan and Tower, with tracts of hilly sandy 
moraine. Jasper Peak, near Soudan, has an elevation of 1,710 feet, 
and is said to be one of the highest points in the State. Tower Junction 
to Robinson, past Eagle Nest Lakes, the railroad follows an old glacial 
channel. Waters from the edge of the melting ice sheet to the north broke 
across the axis of the Vermilion Range. A sandy moraine lies south of 
the railroad toward Ely. To the north is the hard pre-Cambrian rock, 
bare of soil, all swept away by the great ice sheets. An outwash plain 
of sand and gravel lies south of Ely and Winton. Glacial waters flooded 
across southwestward toward Embarrass by a broad channel which is 
now occupied by a long band of swamp. This channel lies across the 
axis of the great Giant's Range. 

DULUTH, MISSABI & NORTHERN RAILWAY 

Duluth. — miles. Proctor. — 9 miles from Duluth. Adolph. — 18 
miles. 

From Duluth the railroad makes a rapid ascent to the highland to 
the west. The course is first across the lake deposited clayey plain, 
then across the rock}^ highest shore-line of Lake Duluth north of West 
Duluth. Above the beach more pre-Cambrian Keweenawan rocks are 
exposed. The climb to Proctor is one to be remembered. The view of 
the lake and harbor from the rear platform of the train is worth the trip. 
Proctor and Adolph are on the highland on which lies the great moraine 
formed by the Labradorian glacier, and which runs around the west end 
of the Lake Superior Basin. 

Saginaw.— 23 miles; Alt. 1,364 feet. Culver.— 31 miles; Alt. 1,292 
feet. Alborn.— 34 miles; Alt. 1,310 feet. Birch.— 39 miles; Alt. 1,327 feet. 

Saginaw is on the north part of the moraine, which is here divided, 
and interrupted by tracts of till-plain west of Pine and south of Saginaw. 
Cloquet flows through a till-plain east of Culver. These are red drift 
moraines and till -plains. Alborn and Birch are on overridden red drift 
moraines, — gray over red. 

Kekey.— 47 miles; Alt. 1,304 feet. Zim.— 58 miles. Forbes.— 62 miles. 

From Birch to Forbes the swampy land is muskeg, or moss peat, 
that holds water and blocks drainage. The plain slopes southwest. 
Near the river a belt of till appears because of good drainage, as at Kel- 
sey on the Whitefaee River. At Zim and Forbes also dry land appears. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WII^DOW 371 

sandy deposits bordering St. Louis River, borne onto the plain probably 
by the swollen glacial stream. 

Wilpen.— 79 miles; Alt. 1,422 feet. Hibbing.— 84 miles; Alt. 1,537 
feet. 

A small moraine rises west of Iron Junction, but the railroad runs 
on till-plain mostly to Wilpen and Hibbing. 

Sparta.— 72 miles; Alt. 1,430 feet. Biwabik.— 80 miles; Alt. 1,448 
feet. Eveleth. — 71 miles; Alt. 1,574 feet. Virginia. — 74 miles; Alt. 
1,449 feet. Mountain Iron.— 74 miles; Alt. i;465 feet. Chisholm.— 83 
miles. 

Each of these places is situated about a mile distant from the out- 
cropping hard crystalline rocks of the Mesabi or Giant's R-ange. The 
great iron deposits lie generally immediately south of the Range. The 
deposits are therefore generally covered by a thin mantle of drift. This 
overlying drift is removed from the ore beds, in the process called 
' ^ stripping. ' ' 

COLERAINE BRANCH 

Alborn.— 34 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,310 feet. Meadowlands.— 46 
miles. Toivola, — 56 miles. Bovey. — 87 miles. Coleraine. — 88 miles. 

Alborn is on overridden red drift moraine. West of this the moss 
peat swamp lies on the flat bottom of glacial Lake Upham, to Silica. 
Meadowlands is on the lake clay bed which borders Whiteface River. 
This is free from muskeg because of good drainage. Muskeg is crossed 
to St. Louis River 4 miles west. This is bordered also by sandy deposits. 
Farther there are sandy islands in the swamp, and irregular belts of 
sandy deposits border the streams. The intervening wet lands are clayey 
in character and when drained the soil is very productive. West of 
Silica is rolling till-plain, and west of this a large overridden moraine — 
gray over red drift. A rolling till-plain east of Bovey is also veneered 
with gray drift. West of Bovey and about Coleraine is roughly rolling 
red drift moraine overridden and veneered by gray drift. 

DULUTH, WINNIPEG AND PACIFIC RAILWAY 

Duluth. — miles; Alt. 609 feet. Harney. — 16 miles from Duluth; 
Alt. 1,207 feet. Twig.— 28 miles; Alt. 1,385 feet. Bartlett.— 30 miles. 
Taft.— 36 miles; Alt. 1,340 feet. Ellsmere.— 55 miles; Alt. 1,347 feet. 
Peary.— 66 miles ; Alt. 1,339 feet. Virginia.— 77 miles ; Alt. 1,433 feet. 

The railroad ascends from the lake-washed till-plain at Duluth at 
an elevation of 602 feet (lake level) to the highest beach of Lake Duluth, 
at an elevation of 1,200 feet, and crosses the large moraine of the Labra- 
dorian glacier, which lies parallel with the lake shore, 1,200 to 1,400 
feet above sea level. This hilly moraine continues to Grand Lake and 



372 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Cloquet Kiver. Cloquet River is in a large glacial valley. Taft to Shaw 
is a stony till-plain. After passing Shaw there is rolling till-plain with 
intervening marshes and swamps. The till-plain has a surface veneer 
of gray drift over red drift. East at EUsbury is red drift moraine made 
less stony by veneering of gray drift from the northwest. Muskeg 
swamp becomes wide up to the sandy plain that borders the St. Louis 
River at Peary. The sand is glacial flood deposit, and is free from moss- 
peat because of good drainage. Stony till-plain north of Peary to Vir- 
ginia. East of Virginia is an elbow of the great Mesabi Range extending 
south to Eveleth. 

Britt.— 86 miles; Alt. 1,480 feet. Angora.— 97 miles; Alt. 1,351 
feet. Cook.— 104 miles ; Alt. 1,311 feet. 

The axis of the Mesabi Range is crossed north of Virginia. This is 
a main fold of the ancient mountain range, and the "oldest rocks in 
the world" are exposed. The ice sheets passed over the hard ridges and 
promontories, and many boulders of granite, porphyry, and quartzite, 
and other very hard rocks, plucked by the ice from this hard range, 
now strew the fair land far to the south, — to and beyond St. Paul. 
From Putnam to Angora alternating stony moraines, tracts of till-plain, 
and swamps. At Angora the high shore-line of the extreme eastern point 
of Lake Agassiz. The sandy beach ridge of this bay of the ancient lake 
lies parallel with the shore of Vermilion Lake in a northwest-southeast 
direction. Cook is on a plain of wave-washed clayey till of the ancient 
lake bottom. Gheen is on the sandy beach at the north shore of the bay. 

Alvina. — 114 miles; Alt. 1,364 feet. Glendale. — 118 miles; Alt. 
1,299 feet. Cusson.— 123 miles; Alt. 1,332 feet. Kinmount.— 137 miles; 
Alt. 1,320 feet. Ray.— 152 miles ; Alt. 1,160 feet. Ericsburg.— 160 miles; 
Alt. 1,117 feet. Ranier.— 169 miles; Alt. 1,130 feet. 

From Glendale to Kinmount and beyond is barren rock the surface 
soil from which was sw^ept southward by the great ice sheets. A belt of 
red drift moraine overridden by the ice of the Keewatin ice sheet borders 
the shore of Lake Agassiz at Gheen. Pelican Lake, west of Orr, is a large 
lake of ponded waters held back by the moraine to the south. Ray and 
Ericsburg are on the plain of the ancient lake bottom, though the exact 
location of the shore-line west of Gheen has not been exactly traced. 
Another overridded moraine is crossed south of Ranier. Ranier is on 
Rainy Lake, amidst the hard outcropping pre-Cambrian rocks. Rainy 
River is crossed here and connection made with the Canadian Northern 
Railway. 

CANADIAN NORTHERN RAILWAY 4^ 

Beaudette-Spooner.— 227 miles from Duluth ; Alt. 1,075 feet. Pitt.— 
234 miles. Graceton.— 239 miles; Alt. 1,134 feet. Williams.— 245 miles; 



GEOLOGY FROM A GAR WINDOW 373 

Alt. 1,M7 feet, lioosevelt.— 251 miles ; Alt. 1,154 feet. Swift.— 258 miles ; 
Alt. 1,134 feet. Warroad.— 264 miles; Alt. 1,060 feet. Winnipeg.— 
379 miles. 

The Canadian Northern enters the State at Beaudette and Spooner 
from across the Rainy River. A tract of heavy clay borders the river, 
at Beaudette and Spooner. This soon gives way to lake-washed clayey 
till. At Pitt a large sandy beach of Lake Agassiz is crossed. This beach 
extends interruptedly for many miles northwest and southeast across 
the flat plain. Williams is on sandy wave-washed till, and between Wil- 
liams and Roosevelt another sandy beach is twice crossed. Between 
Roosevelt and Swift another large beach is crossed, and still another 
smaller one south of Warroad. Warroad is near the shore of Muskeg 
Bay, an arm of Lake of the Woods. The sandy plain continues from 
Warroad to the international boundary. To the west is swamp, with 
occasional sandy islands. 

MINNEAPOLIS & RAINY RIVER RAILWAY 
Deer River to Little Fork. — 88 miles (with branches). 
This line runs along the west side of a large moraine of red drift 
which was overridden by the Keewatin glacier, to Marcell, and then 
crosses the moraine to Big Fork. The hills are roughly rolling, and 
there are frequent boulders from the hard-rock region to the north. 
The gray drift, however, has supplied a less stony covering and some- 
what softened the roughness of the red drift moraines. Till-plain lies 
north of Deer River, then extensive wet land. Swamps also intervene 
frequently between the rolling hills. Jessie Lake, Stanley, and Round 
Lake are on branch lines, located on the overridden moraine. Marcell 
is on the moraine and surrounded by a fine group of morainic lakes. Big 
Fork is on till-plain, with gray drift forming the surface. Kenney is 
also on the gray drift till-plain. This great territory will be valuable 
farming land when it is improved. Some miles north of Kenney the 
highest shore-line of Lake Agassiz is crossed. Several more sandy beach 
ridges are crossed north to Little Fork. Islands of clayey till beaten 
by the waves, also overridden moraines some of which stood above the 
waters of the lake as islands, are crossed in the great muskeg swamp 
which covers most of this part of the bottom of Lake Agassiz. 

This muskeg is a moss-peat growth on a gently undulating surface. 
Beaver dams, willows, and moss have blocked the natural drainage. 
The mviskeg is from 1 to 25 feet deep. When this land is reclaimed the 
surface will not be as flat as that of the present muskeg surface. 

HILL CITY RAILWAY 
Mississippi. — 8 miles from Swan River. 



374 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

From SAvan River the railroad traverses a plain covered with fine 
sand or silt borne by the glacial floodwaters of the Mississippi and 
tributary streams to the head of glacial Lake Aitkin. The east shore- 
line of Lake Aitkin is a conspicuous sandy beach ridge east of the river 
at the crossing, and lying nearly parallel with the Mississippi for 25 
miles to the south. West of the river the railroad crosses the flat and 
swampy plain. Under the peat is sand along the track, but a few miles 
south is clay, on which the waters of Lake Aitkin were ponded. Sandy 
islands and one of claye^^ drift are crossed. 

Hill City.— 24 miles. 

On rolling till-plain. North are overridden moraines. The rough 
knolls of the stony (Patrician) red drift are smoothed over by the 
gray (Keewatin) drift, which forms a veneer of less stony material 
over the more stony red. The topography is quite rolling, and a fine 
grow^th of hardwood forest on these hills since the original pine was 
cut. A large woodenware manufacturing plant is located here. 

MINNEAPOLIS, RED LAKE & MANITOBA RAILWAY 

Bemidji. — miles; Alt. 1,347 feet. (Beltrami County.) Puposky. — 
16 miles from Bemidji; Alt. 1,368 feet. Nebish. — 24 miles; Alt. 1,366 
feet. Redby.— 33 miles ; Alt. 1,210 feet. 

The great gravelly outwash plain continues north from Bemidji 
10 miles. North of the outwash plain is a large gray drift moraine, 
decidedly rolling, with many fine lakes. Puposky is in the midst of a 
fine group of lakes on rolling till-plain. Both the moraine to the soutli 
and the till-plain are clayey. Nebish is on another moraine to the 
north, which is somewhat more sandy in character. The clayey till-plain 
extends west about Island Lake. Another lies east of the moraine at 
Nebish. This is clayey in character. It extends beyond Funkley, Kel- 
liher, and Mizpah. Two sandy and gravelly beaches of Lake Agassiz 
are crossed near Redby, these lying south of and parallel with the shore 
of Red Lake. Redby is located on the sandy lake-washed plain between 
these two beaches. Lake-washed sand covers the plain east past Quiring, 
and north to Foy and Shotley. The soil is without stones, easily worked, 
and is moist because the clayey till lies immediately under it. 

ELECTRIC SHORT LINE RAILWAY 

Minneapolis. — miles. Watertown. — 30 miles; Alt. 943 feet. Win- 
sted.— 40 miles; Alt. 1,011 feet. Silver Lake.— 50 miles; Alt. 1,052 feet. 
Hutchinson.— 60 miles; Alt. 1,042 feet. 



GEOLOGY FROM A CAR WINDOW 375 

The road runs most of the way through rolling moraine to Water- 
town. Small lakes and ponds amongst morainic hills. South Fork of 
Crow River is crossed east of Watertown. This stream cuts through 
the moraine which lies about Watertown. Two miles west of Watertown 
the hilly moraine flattens to a rolling till-plain. 

About Winsted is a group of small lakes on the rolling till-plain. 
Three miles west of Winsted a narrow moraine is crossed, followed hy 
rolling clayey till-plain to Hutchinson, many lakes occupying depres- 
sions in the rolling plain. Hutchinson is on the rolling till-plain, with a 
hilly moraine and many fine lakes Avest and north. 



GLOSSARY 

Alluvium, or Alluvial.— Loose earth materials deposited by modern 
streams upon their valley bottoms, forming floodplains. 

Archaean. — A term that means old. Applied to the most ancient 
geologic times and also to the rocks formed during that time. These 
ancient rocks are mostly granitic. 

Bed-Rock. — The rock formations that underlie the drift; in many 
places in layers or strata. Bed-rock may be granite, slate, sandstone, 
shale, limestone, or clay. 

Conglomerate. — A "pudding stone," or mixture of rounded stones 
and sand cemented into a hard solid mass. The rounded stones may be 
of all sizes from sand grains to cobbles and boulders. A. formation of 
wave-worn fragments of a sea shore that have been cemented into solid 
rock would be a conglomerate formation. 

Cretaceous. — Applied to a period of geologic time preceding Tertiary, 
also applied to the rock formations that were deposited on the sea bot- 
toms of that time. 

Crust of the Earth. — The outer portion of the earth. It includes 
all the rock formations of the earth to a depth of several miles. The 
exact thickness or depth of the earth's crust is not known. We know 
it only to a depth of a few miles. 

Diabase. — A hard, dark, lava rock making up a large part of the 
lava flows from the Lake Superior Region. 

Dolomite.— A form of limestone. It differs from ordinary limestone 
in that it contains the element magnesium in addition to calcium. Many 
forms of white marble are magnesian limestones. 

Drift. — Any form of earth materials carried by glaciers and de- 
posited when the ice melted. 

Drift Sheet. — Applied to the drift deposit of any ice invasion. It 
includes ground moraine or till-plain, terminal moraines, and outwash 
plains. 

Formation. — Any rock mass that occurs naturally in the earth. It 
may be solid rock as limestone or granite, or it may be loose as sand, 
gravel, clay, or soil. 

Glacial Invasion. — See Ice Invasion. 

Glacial Period. — The entire time from the first ice invasion till the 
close or melting away of the last continental glaciers. 

Glacial River. — A river formed by waters from the melting ice of a 
glacier. 

377 



378 THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Glacial Stage. — The time during which the continent was covered 
with ice, as distinguished from an interglacial stage. (See Ice Invasion.) 

Glacial Valley. — A valley cut by the waters of a "glacial" river. 
Such valleys are generally out of all proportion to the streams that now 
occupy them and their sides are commonly steep and their bottoms 
broad and flat, and a small stream may or may not meander over the 
bottom. 

Ground Moraine. — See Till-plain. 

Ice Age. — Sometimes used in referring to the glacial period. 

Ice Cap or Center. — The place from which the ice of a glacier seems to 
come. The place where the snows gathered from which the glaciers were 
formed. The Keewatin Ice Cap was over the old province of Keewatin ; 
the Patrician Ice Cap was over the old province of Patricia ; the Labra- 
dorian over Labrador. A Greenland Ice Cap covers most of Greenland 
today. 

Ice Invasion. — The on-coming or advance of a continental glacier. 
Applied also to the period of time during which the ice held sway. 

Ice Sheet. — A term applied to continental glaciers. The ice spread 
by its own weight and flowed over the land, and it is therefore referred 
to as an ice sheet. 

Igneous Rocks. — From Latin Ignis, meaning fire. Igneous rocks 
are those that have been melted by the heat of the earth's interior. 
They may have been forced out upon the surface in the form of lava, or 
forced into spaces between other formations below the surface. 

lUinoisan Glacier or Ice Invasion. — A Labradorian glacier that ex- 
tended into Minnesota depositing the ''Old Eed Drift." 

Interglacial Stage, or Time. — The interval between two ice in- 
vasions. The climate may have been, and probably was, much like that 
of the present. There is evidence that a sub-tropical climate has existed 
much farther north than at present. 

Joints. — Cracks in the strata or layers of rocks whereby the rocks 
are broken into blocks. The jointing is crosswise of the strata. 

Kansan Glacier. — A Keewatin glacier that deposited the ''Older 
Gray Drift." 

Keewatin. — The name of a Province in Canada. Applied to the 
glaciers which originated from that region. Also applied to the gray 
drift deposits from those glacieis. 

Keeweenawan. — Applied to a period of geologic time and to the 
rocks formed during that time. The name is from Keeweenaw Point, 
Michigan, where rocks of that formation are exposed. Keeweenawan 
rocks are in part volcanic lava-flows and in part, sea-sediments. 



379 

Labradorian. — Applied to the glaciers that came from Labrador, 
and also to the drift deposits of those glaciers. 

Lacustrine. — Pertaining to a lake — deposits made on the bottoms of 
lakes. Applied to the sediments deposited on the bottoms of extinct 
glacial lakes. 

Lava. — Molten rock from the depths of the earth, poured out from 
volcanoes or from fissures in the earth's crust. 

Loam. — Used in describing soils. Loam is made up of a mixture of 
sand and clay. If clay predominates it is clay' loam. If sand predomi- 
nates it is sandy loam. If there is much stone it is stony loam or stony 
clay loam, or stony sandy loam. 

Loess. — A soil formation consisting of dust carried by the wind 
during the glacial period and deposited upon vegetation-covered land 
surfaces. It is fine-grained, without stones, and very uniform in texture. 

Moraine. — Earth materials deposited by a glacier. If at the end 
or terminus of a glacier it is called a terminal moraine. If deposited 
under the glacier it is called ground moraine, or till-plain. Ground 
moraine and till-plain are terms applied to the dinft materials which 
make up much of the prairie landscape. It is the material that was 
carried in the bottom of, or ridden over by, the great continental glaciers. 

Nebraskan Glacier. — A Keewatin glacier that deposited the "Older 
Gray Drift." 

Old Gray Drift. — Drift deposited by the Keewatin glacier of the 
second or Kansan ice invasion. 

Older Gray Drift. — Drift deposited by a glacier from the Keewatin 
center, but which was earlier than the Kansan. It is sometimes re- 
ferred to as the Nebraskan. 

Old Red Drift. — The drift deposited by a Labradorian glacier during 
the third or Illinoisan glacial invasion. 

Outwash. — Earth materials carried away from the edge of a glacier 
by escaping ice Avaters, usually sandy and gravelly. 

Outwash Plain. — Materials from a melting glacier, generally sandy, 
washed away from the ice by the glacial floodwaters and spread out 
often over wide areas; sometimes spread along the bottom of a glacial 
valley as a sandy or gravelly valley filling. 

Patrician. — From the old Province of Patricia in Canada. Applied 
to the glacier which came from that center, and also to the drift de- 
posited by that glacier. 

Prairie. — A grassy plain as distinguished from a forest covered 
plain. Prairies may be roughly rolling (moraines) or more nearly level 
(till-plains). 



3 so THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 

Preglacial. — Before the glacial period. Generally refers to time 
immediately preceding the glacial period. 

Quartz. — A hard mineral from which glass is made. It occurs in 
the form of crystals, or it may be massive, and either fine-grained or 
coarse-grained. 

Quartzite. — A hard rock consisting' largely of quartz. Many quartz- 
ite boulders occur in the drift. Being very hard the rock resists the 
wearing action of ice while being carried or shoved in glaciers. It 
dissolves very slightly in water, and weathers very slowly. It is one 
of the boulders often spoken of as ''hardheads." 

Recent or Postglacial Time. — The time since the ice of the glacial 
period finally disappeared. 

Retreat (of the Ice Front). — When a glacier melts more rapidly at 
its edge or end than it moves ahead or advances then the front is said 
to ''retreat." 

Rock. — Any natural formation or deposit of earth materials, 
whether in the form of solid rock strata, or sand, or clay, or soil. 

Sandstone. — A formation made up of finely broken rock fragments, 
or sand, and laid down generally as a sea-bottom deposit. Sandstone 
formations are often shallow sea deposits; sometimes they represent 
shore formations. There are several sandstone formations in Min- 
nesota, as the St. Peter, St. Croix, Dresbach, Jordan. These were de- 
posited when shallow seas covered this part of the continent. 

Sedimentary Rock Formations. — Mud, sand, any form of broken rock 
worn by erosion from a land surface and borne to the sea and deposited 
becomes a sedimentary formation. Such formations may be limestone, 
sandstone, shale, conglomerate, etc., according to the character of the 
sediments deposited. 

Silt. — Rock ground to fine powder by ice in glaciers. It is properly 
called "rock flour." 

Stone. — A piece of rock which has been separated from its parent 
ledge. It is rock as long as it is in its original position in a formation. 
When it has been broken and forms a loose fragment then it becomes 
a "stone." Boulders, pebbles, and sand grains are stones which have 
been broken from their parent rock ledges. 

Strata. — The layers or beds of a formation or deposit. 

Stratified. — A term applied to layers of rock or to ice in glaciers. 
Any formation that is in definite layers oi' beds. Limestones and other 
rocks occur in layers. Sands and gi-avels are often in definite layers 
Ice in orlaeiers has been ()])sei'ved in (lefinit<'lv sti'atificHl foi'm. 



0L01^l:^ARY 381 

Superior Lobe or Glacier. — The tongue of ice or lobe of the Labra- 
dorian glacier that pushed westward through the Lake Superior Basin. 
It deposited a red drift. 

Terrace. — The floodplain of an earlier river. When a river erodes 
its valley so that at flood it no longer covers its former floodplain then 
the remnants of the former floodplain remain as benches or terraces. 

Tertiary Time.^ — The period of geologic time that preceded the 
Glacial Period or Quaternary. 

Till. — Sometimes called boulder clay. In the present volume it is 
applied to drift materials generally which have not been assorted by 
water. It is generally made up of clay with more or less of boulders 
and small stone fragments. 

Till-plains. — Same as ground moraine. Drift overridden by the 
ice of the continental ice sheets. Materials carried in the lower por- 
tions of the moving ice, or that was deposited from the ice and later 
overridden by the advancing ice. A terminal moraine overridden and 
leveled by a re-advance of the ice becomes till-plain or ground moraine. 
Most of the undulating or gently rolling prairies of Minnesota are till- 
plain or ground moraine. 

Tilth. — A condition or quality of soil favorable to cultivation and the 
growth of crops. 

Weathered Zone. — An old land surface (soil) which had been weath- 
ered or oxidized by long exposure and later covered by another deposit 
or formation. 

Wisconsin Stage or Ice Invasion. — The fourth or latest invasion 
of the continental glaciers. Three glaciers entered Minnesota during 
the Wisconsin stage, viz. : a Keewatin glacier depositing a gray drift, 
the Patrician, depositing a pinkish-red drift, and the Labradorian gla- 
cier (Superior Lobe), depositing a red drift. 

Young: Red Drift. — Drift deposited by the Patrician glacier which 
is pinkish red in color, or the red drift deposited by the Superior Lobe 
of the Labradorian glacier, both of the Wisconsin ice invasion. 

Young Gray Drift. — Drift deposited by the Keewatin glacier during 
the latest or Wisconsin ice invasion. All the gray drifts contain lime- 
stone boulders and fewer granitic boulders. The glaciers came from a 
limestone country. 



INDEX TO PLACES 



Page 

337 

128, 130, 328 

271 

370 



Acropolis 

Ada 

Adams 

Adolph 

Adrian 56, 63. 293 

Afton 58, 159, 281 

Airlie 275, 295 

Aitkin 156, 190, 191, 229, 347, 368 

Akeley 242, 333 

Albany 40, 229, 317, 365, 366 

Albert Lea 197. 199, 200, 201, 202, 

233, 273, 274, 280, 306, 311, 312 

Albion 370, 371 

Alden 274 

Aldrich 341 

Alexandria 40, 157, 236, 318, 322, 3G0, 361 

Alger 36f> 

Allen 369 

Alpha 274 

Altura 287, 302 

Alvarado 363 

Alvina 372 

Amboy 294 

Amiret 289 

Annandale 357 

Anderson 285 

Andover 323 

Angora 372 

Angus 329 

Anita : 363 

Anoka 50, 312, 316, 339 

Audubon 342 

Appleton 50, 234, 235, 266. 335, 336 

Arco 290 

Areola 143 

Argyle 329 

Arlington 312 

Arthyde . 364 

Ashby 318 

Askov 324 

Atkinson 184, 185, 325, 345 

Atwater 320 

Augusta 265 

Aurora 243, 369 

Austin 56, 111, 197, 271, 299, 306 

Avoca 294 

Avon 317 

Axtel 190 

Backus 90, 349 

Badger 330 

Bagley 242. 327 

Bain 366 

Balaton 284 

Bald Eagle 343, 359 

Barnesville 128, 135, 238, 319. 328 

Barnum 1^4. 345 

Barrett 358 



Page 

Barrows 348 

Bartlett 371 

Bassett 369 

Battle Lake 40, 50, 354 

Baxter 348 

Beaver 287 

Bear Creek 302 

Beardsley 336 

Beaudette 220, 372 

Clover at 240 

Beaver Creek 293 

Becker 340 

Bejou 362 

Belden 359 

Belgrade 357 

Belle Plaint' 58, 146, 152, 155, 291 

Belle Prairie 348 

Bellingham 335 

Beltrami 328 

Belview 313 

Bemidji 50, 157, 242, 320, 333, 349, 

350, 367, 374 

Bena 326 

Bengal 337 

Benning 304 

Benoit 327 

Benson 50, 100, 147, 153, 320, 321, 335, 

344 

Bertha 236, 332 

Bethany 302 

Bethel 323 

Bigelow 293 

Big Palls 241, 351 

Big Fork 373 

Big Lake 340 

Bingham Lake 292. 295 

Birch 370 

Bird Island 265 

Biwabik 61, 3G9, 371 

Bixby 213, 270 

Blackberry S26 

Black Duck 350 

Black Hoof 364 

Blakeley 152 

Blooming Prairie 213, 270, 306 

Blue Earth 288, 294 

Bluffton 341 

Bock 330 

Borup 328 

Bovey 338, 371 

Bowlus 230, 365 

Boyd 313 

Boy River 367 

Braham 229, 323 

Brainerd 23, 50, 156, 157, 191, 230, 

348, 349 



382 



383 



Page 

Brandon 318 

Breckenridgre 124, 128. 131, 321, 322, 355 

Brewster 293, 325 

Bricelyn 288, 307 

Bridgewater 303 

Brimson 369 

Britt 372 

Bronson 240, 363 

Brook Park 323, 324, 330 

Brooks 362 

Brookston 25, 325 

Brooten 50, 236, 357 

Browersville 236, 332 

Brown's Valley 123, 125, 126, 336 

Brownsville 275 

Brownell 345 

Brownton 265 

Bruce 309 

Bruno 324 

Buena Vista 350 

Buffalo Lake 265 

Buhl 337 

Burchard 284 

Burr 290 

Burtrum 353 

Butterfield 288, 292 

Byron 285 

Caledonia 24, 276 

Callaway 361 

Cambria "283 

Cambridge 160, 323 

Campbell 321 

Canby 289, 290 

Cannon Falls 214, 215, 216 

Canton 24, 277 

Caribou 240 

Carlisle 319 

Carlos 360 

Carlton 21, 24, 25, 40, 42, 58, 163, 

184, 185, 186, 187, 324, 325, 345 

Carver 146, 152, 279, 310 

Cass Lake 50, 242, 326, 333, 367 

Castle Rock 270 

Cayuna 193, 368 

Cazenovia 308 

Cedar Lake 347 

Center City 346 

Cejdon 288 

Chandler 275 

Chanhassan 265 

Chaska 97, 146, 279, 310 

Chatfiekl 287 

Chisago 346 

Chisholm 243, 245, 337, 371 

Chokio 336 

Cisco 362 

Clara City 334 

Claremont 285 

Clarissa 236, 332 

Clarkfield 313 

Clark's Grove 305, 306 

Clearbrook 367 



Page 

Clear Lake 340 

Clearwater 317 

Clement 289 

Cleveland 280 

Climax 322 

Clinton 281 

Clitheral . 354 

Clontarf 321 

Cloquet 61, 325 

Cloverton 359 

Coates 297 

Cobden 283. 289 

Cohasset .' 326 

Cokato : . . . 320 

Cold Spring 157, 229 

Coleraine 102, 338, 371 

Collis 282 

Cologne 265 

Comstock 322 

Comfrey 287 

Conger 306, 307 

Cook 372 

Clayey Keewatin Drift Soils at 239 

Coon Creek 23, 323, 339 

Copas 163, 359 

Corona , 346 

Correll 266 

Cottonwood 334 

CourtlJ^nd 115, 140, 147, 287 

Cressun 308 

CromAvell 346 

Crookston 322, 328, 329, 353 

Crosby 368 

Crystal 356 

Culver 370 

Currie 296 

Cushing 230, 341 

Cusson 372 

Cyphers 229, 349 

Cyrus 50, 354 

Dakota 269 

Dalton 318 

Daubury 359 

Danube 266 

Danvers 335 

Darfur 287 

Darina 368 

Darling 51, 341 

Darwin 237, 320 

Dassel 320 

Dawson 313 

Dayton 160, 317, 320, 339, 344 

Deephaven 312 

Deer Creek 354, 360 

Deer River 326, 373 

Deerwood 50, 59, 347 

DeGraff 320 

D'elano 100, 151, 153, 155, 159, 160. 

161, 317, 320, 344, 356. 357 

Delavan 274 

Delft 295 

Delhi 313 



884 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Pa?4e 

Denham 364 

Dennison 298 

Dent 361 

Detroit 40, 337, 342, 361 

Dodge Center 285, 298 

Donnelly 125. 126, 321 

Donaldson 329 

Doran 321 

Dorset 333 

Dotson 284, 287 

Douglas 300 

Dover 286, 303 

Dovray 296 

Downer 328 

Draco 325 

Dresbach 269 

Drummond 369 

Dudley 289 

Dugdale 327 

Duluth 21, 24, 25, 42, 113, 183, 188, 

247, 345, 346, 359, 364, 369, 370, 371 

Dumfries 277 

Dumont 282 

Dundas 270, 305 

Dundee 294 

Dunnell 204. 315 

Eagle Bend 236, 332 

Eagle Lake 284 

East Grand Forks 328, 353 

East Lake 368 

Easton 274 

Ebro 327 

Echo 313 

Eden 29S 

Eden Prairie 309, 310 

Edgerton 275 

Eggleston 267 

Elba 2S7, 302 

Elbow Lake 100, 123. 336, 337, 358 

Deep Well at 153 

Eldred 322 

Elgin 286 

Elizabeth 337 

Elko 280 

Elk River 23, 207, 339 

Elkton 298 

Ellendale 305, 306 

Ellis 236 

Ellsbury 372 

Ellsmore 371 

Ellsworth 300 

Elmore 294 

Elrosa 366 

Ely 369, 370 

Elysian 304 

Embarrass 369. 370 

Emily 50. 59, 193 

Emmons 201, 311 

Empire 279, 297 

Enfield 317, 340 

Epsom 278 

Erharts 337 

Rrirsburg 372 



r Page 

Erskine 327, 362 

Essig 283 

Etter 227, 267 

Euclid 239, 329 

Evan 289 

Evansville 318, 336 

Eveleth 369, 371 

Everdell 355 

Excelsior 59, 312 

Eyota 286 

Fairfax 312 

Fairmont 207, 274, 288 

Fairmount (N. D.) 359 

Faribault 270, 278, 303, 304, 305, 306 

Farmington 50, 155, 270, 279 

Farwell 358 

Felton 328 

Fergus Falls 40, 127, 128, 318, 321, 

322, 337, 354 

Fertile 352 

Finlayson .^ 344 

Fisher 328 

Flaming 352 

Flensburg 230, 353 

T'l)odwood 27, 193, 245, 325, 326 

Florence 335 

Foley 51, 230, 331 

Fond du Lac 186, 188 

Forada 360 

Forbes 370 

Forest 83 

Forest City 237 

Forest Lake 343 

Forest Mills 278 

Foreston 331 

r^^ort Ripley 23, 348 

Fort Snelling 151. 156, 157. 175, 176, 

177. 180, 269 

Terrace 291 

FosUon 327 

Fountain 273 

Fox 330 

Foxhome 355 

Fox Lake 288 

Foy 374 

Franconia 165, 170 

Franklin 312 

Frazee 341 

Freeborn 202, 280 

F'reeport 317 

French 354 

Fridley 23, 323, 339 

Friesland 344 

Frogner 364 

Frontenac 267 

Frost 288 

Fulda 275 

Funkley 350, 374 

Garden City 294 

Garfield 318 

Garvin 284 

Gary 234. 290, 315, 352 

Gavlord 312 



3?5 



Page 

Gemmell 351 

Genola 365 

Georgetown 322, 362 

Georg-eville 357 

Gheen 372 

Gibbon 312 

Glencoe .265, 281 

Glendale 372 

Glenville 199, 200, 306 

Glenwood ..50. 236, 354, 358, 360, 366 

Glyndon 328, 342 

Gonvick 243, 367 

Goodhue 24, 111, 299 

Goodland 337 

Goodridg-e 362 

Good Thunder 280 

Gordonsville 198, 199, 30C 

Graceton 372 

Graceville 125, 126, 281, 336 

Grand Falls 351 

Grand Rapids 25, 58, 153, 156, 158, 

243, 326 

Drainage North 157 

Grand Meadow 273 

Grandy 323 

Granite Falls 111, 146, 153, 206, 266, 

334 

Grantsburg (Wis.) 344 

Grasston 323, 344 

Grayling 192, 347 

Greenbush 330 

Green Isle 312 

Green Valley 334 

Greenwald 366 

Grenada 274 

Grey Eagle 353 

Groenigen 344 

Grogan 292 

Grove City ' 320 

Guckeen 288 

Gully 367 

Guthrie 242, 349 

Hackensack 40, 241, 349 

Hadley 295 

Hallock 329 

Halma 240, 363 

Halstad 322 

Hamburg 312 

Hamel 356 

Hammond 27 

Hampton 62, 227, 297 

Hancock 100, 321 

Hanley Falls 313, 334 

Hanska 314 

Hardwick 308 

Harlis 359 

Harmony 24, 277 

Harney 371 

Harris 344 

Hastings 50, 62, 145, 146, 150, 153, 

154, 155, 157, 159, 161, 173, 175, 237 



Page 

Platfield 275 

Havana 285 

Haverhill 286 

Hayward 273 

Hawick 331 

Hawley 342 

Hay Creek 299 

Hayfield 298 

Hazel 362 

Hazel Run 313 

Heckman 289 

Hector . . . 265 

Helena 310 

Hemmington . 240 

Henderson 152, 291 

Hendricks 290 

Hendrum 322 

Henning 354, 360, 361 

Henriette 323 

Hereford 123 

Herman 125, 127. 321 

Heron Lake 274, 292 

Hewitt 332 

Hibbing 62, 243, 337, 371 

Drift Sheets at 105 

Highland 369 

Hill City 96, 374 

Hillman 365 

Hills 24, 309 

Hilltop 310 

Hinckley 59. 324, 344 

Hitterdahl 352 

Hoffman 358 

Hokah 271 

Holdingsford 230, 365 

Holland 335 

Holloway 335 

Holt 329 

Holyoke 324 

Homer 269 

Hope 305, 306 

Hopkins 265. 309 

Houston 272 

Howard Lake 320 

Hubert 349 

Hudson (Wis.) 159 

Hugo 343 

Huntley 274 

Humboldt 329 

Hutchinson 233, 281, 334, 374. 375 

Thlen 335 

Imogene 288 

International Falls ....25, 240, 351, 352 

Inver Grove 297. 305 

lona 275 

Iron Hub 368 

Iron Junction 243 

Ironton 368 

Isanti 323 

Isinours 272 

Island 96. 193, 325 

Island Lake 242 



386 



THE STORY OF THE JS'ORTH STAR STATE 



Ivanhoe 2^90 

Iverson 325, 346 

Jacobson 191 

Jackson 234, 274 

Janesville 285 

Jarrett 277 

Jasper 308, 335 

Jeffers 295 

Jenkins 349 

Jessie Lake 373 

Johnson 363 

Jordan .... .59, 97, 146, 152, 233, 291, 310 

Judson 283 

Kanaranzi 309 

Kandiyohi 320 

Karlstad 363 

Kasota 146, 280, 287 

Kasson 285 

Keegan 277 

Keewatin 338 

Kelliher 350, 374 

Kellogg 268 

Kelly Lake 337 

Kelsey 370 

Kennedy 329 

Kenneth 307, 308 

Kenney 373 

Kensington 358 

Kent 322 

Kenyon 278, 298 

Kerkhoven 320 

Kerrick 324 

Kettle River 366 

Kiester 288 

Kilkenny 310 

Kimball 357 

Kimberly 190, 192, 193. 347 

Kinbrae 275 

King's Cooler 267 

Kingsdale 359 

Kingston 237 

Kinmount 872 

Klossner 314 

Knife River 369 

Kragnes 322 

La Crescent 271 

Lafayette 314 

Laird 303 

Lake Benton 284 

Lake City 150, 267 

Lake Crystal 292 

Lake Elmo 29 6 

Lakefield 274 

Lake Harriet 26 

Lakeland 159, 163, 281 

Lake Park 342 

Lakeville 58. 27*t 

Lake Wilson 295 

Lamberton 284 

La Moille 260 

T.,ancaster 363 

Tjanesboro 272 

Tjangdon 58, 267 

T..ansing 270 



Page 

LaPorte 349 

LaSalle 314 

Latona 241 

Lavinia 350 

Lawler 57, 366, 368 

Lav^-ndale 238, 319 

Lawrence 152 

Lengby 327 

Leonard 242, 367 

T..eRoy 271, 301 

Le Sueur 146, 152, 280, 291, 311 

Lester Prairie 333 

Lewiston 24, 286 

Lewisville 294 

Libby 366 

Lime Creek 294 

Lincoln 40 

Morainic Hills at 229 

Lindstrom 346 

l>insmore 307, 308 

Litchfield 237, 320 

Little Falls 23, 50, 59, 156, 191, 340 

348, 365 

Little Fork 351, 373 

Little Sauk 236, 332 

Lockhart 328 

Loerch 348 

London 306 

Long Lake 320 

Long Prairie 50. 157, 229, 332 

Longville 229 

Lonsdale 58, 280 

Loretto 356 

Louisburg 335 

Lowry 358 

Lucan 289 

Luce 341 

Lutzen 187 

Luverne 24, 114, 211, 294, 308 

Lyle 299, 306 

Lynd 335 

Mabel 277 

Madelia 147. 292, 294, 314 

Madison 313 

Madison Lake 304 

Magnolia 293 

Mahnomen 362 

Mahtowa 184, 345 

Mallory 32S 

Manannah 2*^7 

Manchester 311 

Mandus 330 

Manitoba Junction 342 

Mankato 42, 146. 152, 207, 234. 280, 

283, 292. 304, 311 

Manly 24, 293 

Mantorville 285, 298 

Maple Lake 125, 357 

Maple Plain 320 

Mapleton 280 

Marcell 37:^ 

March 363 



387 



Page 

Margie 351 

Marietta 314 

Marine 163, 359 

Markville 359 

Marshall 147, 234, 289, 334 

Matawan 281 

Mavie 362 

Mayer 333 

Maynard 334 

Mayville 299 

Mazeppa 278 

McCracken 277 

McGrath 57, 161, 364, 366 

McGreg-or 57, 90, 96, 161, 191, 193, 325, 

347 

Mcintosh 327 

McKinley 369 

Meadowlands 371 

Medford 270, 305 

Melrose 317 

Melvin 352 

Menahga 332 

Mendota 104, 146, 151, 175, 269, 291 

Mentor 285 

Merriam 146, 152, 155, 265, 310 

Merrifield 349 

Mesaba '369 

Middle River 330 

Milaca 230, 330, 331 

Milan 266 

Mildred 349 

Millviile 277 

Miloma 274, 293 

Milroy 289 

Miltona 360 

Minneapolis 23, 42, 58, 59, 92, 113, 
145, 173, 227, 265 269, 312, 316 

323, 339, 356 

Deep Well at 112 

Granite in Boring- 206 

Minneiska 268 

Minneota 290 

Minnesota City 268, 286, 287, 302 

Minnesota Falls 266 

Minnesota Lake 280 

Minnetonka Mills 312 

Mirbat 245, 325 

Mission Creek 344 

Mississippi 373 

Mizpah 351, 374 

Money Creek 272 

Montevideo 206, 266 

Montgomery 233, 280, 310 

Monticello 317 

Montrose 320 

Moorhead 319, 322, 342 

Moose Island 321 

Mora 51, 330 

Morgan 289 

Morris 147, 336, 354 

Morristown 30 4 

Morton 103, 111, 146, 312 

Moscow 197, 198, 19n 



Page 

Motley 50, 229, 348 

Monterey 315 

Mound Prairie 271 

Mountain Iron 371 

Mountain Lake 292 

Mudbaden 291 

Murdock 320 

Muskoda 342, 362 

Myrtle 198, 199, 306 

Nakoda 352 

Nary 242, 349 

Nashua . . : 358 

Nashwauk 338 

Nassau 335 

Nebish 242, 374 

Nelson 318 

Nelsville 322 

Nemadji 183, 186, 247, 364 

Nerstrand 214, 298 

Nevis 50, 242, 333 

New Brighton 356 

New Folden 363 

New London 236, 331 

New Munich 366 

Newport 151, 267, 305 

New Prague 58, 310 

New Ulm 42, 103, 105, 111, 114, 115, 
117, 118, 119, 146, 147, 148, 152, 153, 

206, 283, 287, 314 

New York Mills 341 

Nickerson 324 

Nicollet 287 

Nisswa 349 

Norcross 321 

Norman 369 

North Branch 343 

Northcote 329 

Northfield 42, 214, 216, 270, 278, 303, 

304, 305 

Northome 350, 351 

North La Crosse 269 

North Redwood 313 

Northrop 294 

Northtown 339 

Norwood 265, 312, 363 

Oakland 197, 198, 273 

Odessa 235, 266 

Odin 288 

Ogema 362 

Ogilvie 330 

Okabena 274 

Oklee 367 

Olivia 265 

Onamia 365 

Org 293 

Orleans 240, 363 

Ormsby 314, 315 

Orr 372 

Ortonville 50, 111, 123, 125, 126, 146, 

152, 206, 266, 281 

Osakis 318 

Osceola (Wis.) 157 

Cshawa 287 



388 



THE STORY OF THE XORTH STAR STATE 



Pag-e 

Oslo (N. D.) 363 

Osseo 316 

Ostrander 301 

Ottawa 146, 152, 291 

Otisco 311 

Otter Tail 361 

Owatonna 213, 270, 285, 305, 306 

Palisade 96, 190, 192, 36G 

Palmer 311 

Park Rapids.. 50, 153, 157, 236, 241, 

242, 332 

Parker's Prairie 50, 236, 241, 360 

Paupori 3 25 

Paynesville 50, 58, 157, 236, 331, 357, 

360, 366 

Peary 371, 372 

Pease 331 

Pelan 240 

Pelican Rapids 337 

Pemberton 281 

Pennock 320 

Pequot 349 

Perham 51, 341 

Perley 322 

Philbrook 341 

Pierz or Genola 50, 59, 365 

Pine Bend 145, 150, 305 

Pine City 160, 161, 162, 323, 344 

Pine Island 300 

Pine River 50, 349 

Pinewood 350, 367 

Pipestone 56, 63, 114, 211, 275, 295, 

308, 335 

Quartzite Rock at 116 

Pitt 372 

Plainview 24, 286 

Plato 265 

Plummer 362, 367 

Ponsford 241 

Poplar 236 

Porter 290 

Pratt 270 

Predmore 303 

Preston 277 

Princeton 230, 323, 331, 344 

Prior Lake 279 

Proctor 370 

Puposky 242, 374 

Putnam 372 

Quamba 330 

Quiring 374 

Racine 301 

Radium 363 

Ranier 372 

Ramsey 270. 273 

Randall 230, 341 

Randolph 215, 278, 297, 299, 303 

Rapidan 280 

Ray 372 

Raymond 334 

Reading 307 

Read's Landing- 267 

Redby 371 



Page 

Red Lake Falls 329 

Redstone 115, 147 

Redtop 364 

Red Wing 24, 103, 104, 150, 213, 215, 

216, 267, 278, 299 

Clay Products of , . . 300 

Redwood Falls 206, 289 

Remer' 242, 367 

Reno .275 

Renova 298 

Renville 266 

Revere 284 

Richardson 23 

Richdale 51, 341 

Rice 340 

Richland 311 

Richmond 153, 157, 229, 237, 269, 331, 

332, 361 

Rich Valley 297 

Riverton 368 

Robbinsdale 50, 316 

Rochester 24, 286. 300, 301 

Rock Creek 344 

Rockford 160, 317. 3.16. 357 

Rockville 331 

Rogers 316 

Rolette 130 

Ronneby 331 

Roosevelt 373 

Roscoe 331 

Roseau 330 

Rose Creek 271 

Rosemount 50. 269, 305 

Rosewood 363 

Rossburg 347. 368 

Rothsay 238, 319 

Round Lake 307, 373 

Round Prairie 332 

Royalton 340 

Rush City 344 

Rushford 272 

Rushmore 293 

Ruskin 278 

Russell 335 

Ruthton 335 

Rutledge 50 344 

Sacred Heart 266 

Saginaw 370 

St. Bonifacius 333 

St. Charles 286. 30 2. 303 

St. Clair 2S1 

St. Cloud 50, 156, 157, 206, 230. S17. 

323. 331. 340 

St. Hilaire 329 

St. James . 292. 314. 315 

St. Joseph 40, 317 

St. Lawrence 146 

St. Louis Park 265. 309 

St. Paul 23, 42, 50, 56, 58, 59. 97. 145. 

146, 151, 157, 162, 165, 173, 174, 175. 

227, 265, 267, 291, 296, 316. 339. R56. 

359, 372 
St. Peter 146. 152, 287 



389 



Page 

St. A'iuceiit ■■ ^2^ 

Salol 330 

Sanborn 141, 284, 289 

Sargeant 298 

Sartell 340 

Sauk Center... 58, 153, 154, 317, 332, 353 

Sauk Rapids 59, 840 

Savage 155, 291 

Scanlon 24, 184, 185, 325 

Scribner 367 

Seaforth 289 

Searles 314 

Sebeka 157, 332 

Sedan 357 

Shafers 346 

Shakopee 145, 146, 151, 155, 279, 291 

Shaw 372 

Shell Lake 241 

Shelley 322 

Sherburn 274, 2S8, 315 

Shevlin 242, 327 

Shirley 239, 329 

Shotley 374 

Shovel Lake 367 

Silica , 371 

Silver Lake 333, 374 

Silverton 362 

Simpson 301 

Skyberg 298 

Slayton 294 

Sleepy Eye 147, 283, 289 

Smith's Mill 285 

Solana 364 

Solway 327 

Soudan 370 

South Haven 357 

South St. Paul 297 

Sparta 243, 369, 371 

Spooner 372 

Clover at 240 

Springfield 147, 283 

Spring Grove 276 

Spring A'alley 273, 301 

Stacy 343 

Stanchfield 323 

Stanley 373 

Stanton 298 

Staples 50, 153, 156, 341 

Starbuck, 354 

Stephen 329 

Stewart 265 

Stewartville 301 

Stillwater 100, 159, 163, 281, 296 

Stockton 286, 302 

Storden 295 

Strandquist 363 

Strathcona 330 

Sturgeon Lake 50, 344 

Swan River 374 

Swanville 230, 353 

Swatara 229, 367 

Swift 373 

Sylvan 348 



Page 

Syre 238, 352 

Taft 371 

Tamarack 347 

Taopi 271, 298 

Taunton 290 

Taylor's Falls 42, 113, 159, 161, 162, 

164, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 207, 346 

Drift Sheets at 60 

Tenney 358 

Tenstrike 242, 350 

Thief River Falls 239, 329, 362, 363 

Thielman . , 277 

Thompson 186, 247, 345 

Tintah 125, 282, 321, 836, 358 

Toivola 371 

Tower 240, 369, 370 

Tracy 234, 284, 315 

Trail 367 

Traverse .....' 287 

Triumph 288 

Trosky 308 

Truman 294 

Turtle River 242, 350 

Twig- 371 

Twin Lakes 311 

Twin Valley 238, 352 

Two Harbors 369 

Tyler 284 

Ude 90, 193 

Ulen 238, 352 

Underwood 40, 354 

Utica 286, 302 

Varco 299 

Vawter 365 

Verdi 284 

Vermilion 279 

Vergas 361 

Verndale 341 

Vernon Center 294 

Vesta 289 

Victoria 312 

Viking 363 

Villard 236, 353 

Alining 354 

Viola 286 

Virginia 337, 338, 371, 372 

Vlasaty 298 

Wabasha 268 

Wabasso 289 

AVaconia 155, 312 

AVacouta 267 

AA^adena oO, 58, 227, 332, 341 

AVahkon 365 

AA^aldo 369 

AValdorf 281 

AValker 40, 333, 349 

AA^alnut Grove 284 

AValtham 299 

AA^anamlngo 278 

AVand 289 

AVarba 326 

AA^'ard Springs 353 

A^^arren 329, 363 



390 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Page 

Warroad 304, 330, 373 

Waseca 285, 311 

Wassioji 298 

Watab 113, 340 

Waterford 303 

Watertown 374. 375 

Waterville 213, 2:. :, 304, 310 

Watkins 357 

Watson 266 

Watters 30 K 306, 307 

Waubun 362 

Waverly 320 

Wawina 325, 326 

Wayzata 320 

Weaver 268 

Weg-dahl 266 

Welcome 274, 288 

Welch 278, 299 

Wells 274, 280 

Wendell 358 

Westbury 361 

West Concord 298 

Westcott 151. 269 

West Duluth 21, 188, 345, 370 

Westport 353 

West Union 236, 318 

Whalan . . 272 

Wheaton 123, 125, 127, 282 

Wheatville 328 

White Bear 343 

White Rock (S. D.) 121, 282 

Wilkinson 333 



Page 

Williams 372 

Willmar 233, 320, 321, 331, 334 

Willow Ri\er 50. 344 

Wilmont 307 

Wilpen 371 

Wilton 326 

Wilder 292 

Windom 234, 292, 315 

Winger 362 

Winnebago 274, 294 

Winnipeg 130, 329, 353, 363, 373 

Winona 17, 19, 150, 268, 286, 301 

Hill near 99 

Winsted 374, 375 

Winthrop 312. 314 

Winton 369 

Withrow 359 

Wolverton 322 

Wood Lake 313 

Woodstock 295 

Worthington 293, 307 

Wrenshall 187, 247 

Wright 347 

Wykoff 273 

Wyoming 343 

Young America 312 

Zebulon 346 

Zim 370 

Zimmerman •• 23, 331 

Zumbro Falls 24. 278 

Zumbro River 28 

Zumbrota 27S, 300 



INDEX TO SUBJECTS 



Pa! 

Agates, in driti 

Alluvium ..221, 300, 301, 309, 

Alpine Glaciers, how rormed ....37, 
Altamont Moraine 231, 232, 275, 284, 

307, 

Antarctic Glacier 

Aug-usta Lake 

Archaean Rocks 114, 115, 266, 

Area of Lake Agassiz 

Baraboo Range 

Base-level of Erosion 

Beach of Lake Aitkin 

Beach Ridges formed 133. 

Bed-rock 20, 75, 77, 78. 162, 165, 173, 

Beginning-, The 

211, 215, 

Beltrami Island 

Beltrami Sv^^amp 25, 28. 96. 330. 

B. Lake drained north 

Big Island 

Big Stone Lake 123, 

Blanchard Beach 132, 138, 

Blue Mounds 

Bog-Or<- . . , 

Bogs, Hillside 

Bois des Sioux River 28, 121, 123, 124, 



Boulders 72, 74, 75, 77, 

In Chains 

On Lake-washed Till 

Boulder Clay 

Boulder Plains 

Boulders on Red River Valley Plain 
Boulevard Beach, Duluth ....183, 

Brule Pass 166, 

Buffalo Ridge 

Burnside Beach 

Cambrian Formation 

Cambrian Rocks ■ 

Cambrian Sandstones 

Cambrian Sediments 

Cambrian Time and Pv-ocks 

Cambrian Time 

Campbell Beach 125, 131, 138, 319, 
321, 328. 329, 330, 352, 

Cannon Falls 24, 62, 213, 278, 

Cass Lake 88, 

Cayuna Range 24, 208, 211, 

Chains of Lakes 203, 204, 288, 

Changes of Level of Lake Agassiz, 

Summary 

Clayey Till, Soils of in Red River 

Valley 

Clay, How formed 

Clay Loam 

Clay Soils 

Color of Drift . . 

Conglomerates 169, 



e 

59 

310 

64 

335 
55 
175 
338 
143 
211 
31 
192 
134 

107 

223 
241 
367 
157 
188 
125 
139 
292 
209 
310 

282 
78 
130 
240 
40 
49 
238 
186 
186 
275 
138 
170 
169 
207 
172 
116 
165 

363 
299 
326 
348 
294 

142 



238 
41 

343 

222 
59 

170 



Page 

Continental Divide 34 

Continental Glacier, formed ....37, 70 

Copper Ranges 207, 208 

Coteau des Prairies 125, 128, 231, 289, 

307, 314, 335 

Cretaceous 104, 111, 112, 119 

Formations 208, 211 

Cretaceous' Inland Sea 101 

Cretaceous Time and Deposits .102, 103 

Crex Grass Lands 90 

Crow River 320 

Crow River Valley 151, 35G, 357 

Cut by St. Croix 160 

Crow Valley, Old Valley of Missis- 
sippi 153 

Crow Wing Valley, Old Valley of 

Mississippi 153 

Crustal Elevation ....140. 141, 186, 191 

Dakota Glacier 125, 130 

Dalles The 163, 165-172, 168, 169, 346 

Decorah Shale 173 

Deltas in Lake Agassiz 132, 133. 142 

DeSoto Lake 28 

Diabase 168 

Divides, Crossed by Minnesota Riv- 
er = . . . . 152 

Drainage 27 

Drift 19, 56 

Defined 78 

Drift Hills 21 

Driftless Area 286 

Soils of 223 

Drift Sheets, Section 165 

Duluth Harbor 187, 188, 189^ 

Dunes 16. 23, 323, 339, 348, 352 

Dune Sand 340, 343, 348, 356 

Soils of 229 

Eden Valley 237, 357 

Old Valley of Mississippi 153 

Elk Valley Delta 137 

Elmo Lake 159, 296 

Emerado Beach 132, 138 

Eskers . .50, 51, 59, 303, 305, 330, 331, 342 
Falls and Rapids of Mississippi, 

cause of 158 

Fargo Clay 3.^3 

Fargo Clay Loam 343 

Fargo Fine Sandy Loam 238 

Feldspar 73 

Fergus Falls Moraine 128, 130, 136, 

281, 321, 331, 336, 354, 361 

Fish and Game 261-264 

Flandreau Creek 284 

Formations. Table of 110 

Game in Minnesota 252 

Game Birds 250, 254-261 

Game and Food Fishes 261-264 



391 



392 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Page 

Gary Moraine 290 

Giant's Range 369, 370, 371 

Glacial Lakes 191 

Glacial Lakes, in Meeker County. . . 237 

Glacial Minnesota River 146, 147 

Glacial Period 55 

Defined 78 

Glacial St. Louis River 163 

Glacial Stage, Defined 55, 105 

Glacial Terrace 297 

Glacial Valleys 26 

Glacier, How formed 36 

Gladstone Beach 132, 138 

Goose Rapids 130 

Granite 115 

Granite Boulders 74, 166 

Granite, Composition of 73 

Granite Foundation 107 

Granite Outcrop 317, 331, 340, 344, 

351, 365, 372 

Granite Rock 206 

Granitic Rocks Ill 

Gray Cloud Island 150, 173 

Gray Drift 57, 59, 281 

Soils of 235 

Greenland, Glaciers in 68, 71 

Greenland Ice Cap 54 

Ground Moraine 26, 197, 205 

Gwinn's Bluff 269 

Hamline Prairie 50, r.Q 

Haid-b-"'*- ...:.... 74, 76, 78, 338 

Hardwood Belt 87 

Height of Land 128, 327, 328 

Herman Beach 125, 126, 127. 128, 131, 
135. 136, 137. 138, 241, 282. 319, 321, 
327, 337, 342, 351, 352, 354, 358 362 

Multiple 139 

Herman Stage of I^ake Agassiz 139, 140 

Hillsbore Beach 138 

Hills of Erosion 16, 17 

Hills of Glacial Deposit 19 

Hills of Glacial Erosion 21, 22, 26, 27 

Hillside Bogs 97, 98 

Hills, Types of 

Hills of TTplift 24, 27 

Hill.« of Windblown Sand 22 

Horneblende 73 

Huronian. Formations and Time 

110. Ill, 112, 113, 114 

I<'e Ago 55, 71, 123, 318 

Icebergs 54, 70, 71 

Ice Invasion, Defined 56 

Igneous Rocks 24. 16S, 171 

Illinoisan Drift 60, 62 

lllinoisan Glacier 227 

Illinoisan Invasion 226 

Illinoisan Stage 61, 215 

Illinois Central Railroad (Towns 

on) 309 

Interglacial Stage, Defined 105 

Interior of the Farth 107 

Iron, Origin of 209 



Page 
Iron Ranges 58, 163, 187, 206, 207, 

208, 209, 211, 227, 325 

Iron Ranges, Moraines of 243 

Islands in Lake Aitkin 192 

Island Moraine in Lake Agassiz... 241 

Itasca Lake 28, 362 

Itasca Lake, Drained South . 157 

Itasca State Park 40 

Jasper 308 

Jasper Peak 370 

Karnes 278, 285, 286, 298, 300 

Kansan Drift Sheet 105 

Kansan Gray Drift 62, 102. 104, 205, 

223, 273 

Soils of 232 

Kansan Invasion 226 

Keewatin Drift ...57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 104 

Described 280 

Keewatin Drift Sheet 105 

Keewatin Glacier 56, 57, 58. 59, 155, 

157, 161, 163, 185, 227 

Easternmost Moraines of 285 

Grantsburg Lobe of . 22S 

Limestone boulders in 56 

Moraines of 284 

Moraines on West side of 293 

Keewatin Ice Cap 53, 51 

Keeweenawan Formation 1^5, igg, 

169, 172 
Keeweenawan Rocks 111, 113, 114, 

360, 369, 370 

Keeweenawan Sandstone b24 

Keeweenawan Time and Rocks . . . 207 
Kettles 197, 318, 334, 354, 357, 360, 366 

In Moraines 47 

Knobs and Kettles 221 

Labradorian Glacier 53, 56, 57, 58, 

161, 163, 206 

Labradorian Ice Cap 54 

Labradorian Red Drift.. 60, 325, 353, 366 

Lacustrine Clay 237 

Lacustrine Silt 319, 342, 353, 364 

Lagoons in Red River Valley 134 

Lake Agassiz 25, 115, 118, 125, 127, 
128, 144, 191, 194. 
211, 321, 342. 351, 353, 358 

Lake Agassiz, Area of 237 

Beginning of 124. 136 

Bottom 355 

Depth of 128. 131. 143 

Eastern extent of 240. 351. 372 

Soils of 237 

Lake Aitkin 347. 366. 368, 374 

Described 190-194 

Soils of 244 

Lake Benton 284 

Lake Duluth 163. 164, 166 

Described 183-189. 191. 194, 324, 

345. 359, 364. 369, 370 

Soils of 247 

Lake Itasca 333 



393 



Page 

Lake Ntmadji .185, 345, 364 

Lake Park Region IS, 40, 318, 322, 

334, 337, 358, 361 

Attractions of 252 

Soils of 232 

Topography of 233 

J^ake Pepin, Cause of 267 

Lake St. Croix, Cause of 163 

Lakes, Number of in Otter Tail 

County 361 

Lake Superior 29 

Lake Superior Clays, Soils of 247 

Lake Upham 185, 193,. 194, 325, 326, 

337. 371 

Basin of 25 

Described 190-194 

Soils Of 245 

Lake- washed Till 329, 351, 352, 355 

Soils of 238, 241 

Lake Winnipeg- . 29 

Lake of the Woods 29, 330 

Landscape Geolog-y, Defined ..... 15 

Lava 168, 207, 208 

FloAvs 169 

Rock , .... 165 

Leaf Mc-ntain 360 

Leaf Hills 360, 361 

Leech Lake, Drained North 157 

Lemay Lake 175 

Level of Lake Ag-assiz, Cause of 

chang-es in 139 

Limestone Boulders 74, 76 

Limestones, from Manitoba 57 

Little Fork .River 25 

Loam 228 

Soils, of Central Minnesota 236 

• Soils of Moraines 231, 232 

Loam Soils of Southern Minnesota 234 
of Till Plains in Meeker County 237 

Loess 286, 300, 301, 303, 309 

Described 24 

Hills 24 

Soils 223, 224, 225 

Long- Prairie Valley, Old Valley of 

Mississippi 153 

Mahoning: Mine, Drift Sheets at . . . 62 

Marcott Lakes 17 5 

Marsh, or Bog- 94 

Defined 90, 96 

McCauleyville Beach 125, 131, 135, 

137. 319, 321, 328, 352, 355, 358 

McCauleyville Stag-e 138 

Mesas 270, 279, 299 

Mesabi Moraine 130 

Mesabi Range 24, 25, 113, 208, 211, 

242, 337, 369, 371, 372 

Drift on 245 

Mica 73 

Mille Lacs Lake 28 

Milnor. Lake 126 

Minnehaha Creek 176, 177, 181 

Abandoned Fall at 177 



Page 

Minnehaha Falls 181, 269 

Minnesota Glacier 125, 126, 144 

Minnesota Point 188, 189 

Minnesota River 147 

Minnesota Valley 121, 125, 144 

Minnetonka Beach 333 

Minnetonka Lake 151, 152, 153, 175, 333 

Deep Well at 151 

Outlet of 182 

Mississippi River ^ 28 

Moose Lake 50, 58, 163, 184, 185, 186, 

247, 325, 345, 364, 366 

Moraines 16, 47, 57, 198, 247 

Blocking- Old Mississippi Valley.. 151 

Described 40 

Defined 44 

How^ Formed 47 

Moraine, Ground, or Till Plain 48 

Defined 46 

Soils of 230 

Moraines, Lateral 65 

Defined : 45 

Moraines Medial Defined 46 

Ivloraines, of Red Drift 58 

Moraines, Terminal 64 

Defined 45 

Described 40 

How Formed 47 

In Lake Park Reg-ion 233 

Soils of 230, 231, 241 

Morainic Ridges 20, 67 

Mt. Tom 271 

Mud Baths 310 

Multiple Beaches 139 

Muskeg- 96, 371, 372. 373 

Muskeg-s Buried 105 

Muskeg- Swamp 91 

Defined . . . ; 92 

Musk-ox 105 

Mustinka River 2s 

Nebraskan Drift 63. 104, 223 

Nebraska Stag-e 63 

Nicollet Island 175 

Nicollet Island Rapids . . .17c. 180 

Norcross Beach 125, 131, 137, 282, 

321, 327, 355, 358 

Multiple 139 

Norcross Stage 137 

Norsemen in Greenland 54 

Norway, Glaciers in 64-68 

Cld Gray Drift 104, 166, 205, 270, 
271, 273, 275, 279, 285, 297, 298, 299, 
300, 301, 302, 303. 306, 307, 308, 309 

Edg-e of 278 

Soils of 225, 226, 232 

In South Dakota 284 

Older Gray Drift 104, 166 

Oldest Land 206 

Old Landscape. Defined 100 

Old Minnesota 104 

Old Mississippi River 150. 153. 160, 

162, 163, 175, 276, 297, 305 
In Dakota County 155 



394 



THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE 



Page 

Old Minnesota Valley 149 

Old Red Drift 62, 166, 227, 279, 297 

Morainft 297 

Soils of 226 

Old Redstone 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 314 

Old St. Croix River 159, 160 

Old St. Croix Valley 161, 162 

Outlet of Lake Agassiz, Changed. . . 138 

Outwash 57, 193, 198, 306 

Outwash, Red 297 

Red and Gray 156 

Outwash Gravels 325 

Outwash Plains 49, 50, 59, 146, 159, 

197, 201, 266, 303, 307, 309, 316, 319, 366 

Of the Minnesota 145 

Of the Mississippi 356 

North Central Minnesota ....241, 242 
Soils of 288, 230, 233, 235, 236, 237, 241 

Trees on 88 

Overridden Moraines 370, 373, 374 

Paleozoic Rocks and Time 111, 112, 

113, 114, 119 

Patrician Drift 58, 59, 61 

Patrician Red Drift ..60, 62, 105, 8G1 

Soils of 229, 243 

Patrician Glacier 53, 54, 57, 58, 59. 
145, 154, 155. 156, 159, 160, 161, 

165, 166, 216, 227, 228, 245 

Patrician Ice Sheet 34i 

Peat Bed, Buried 105 

Peat Bogs 190, 211 

Defined 93 

History of 94, 95 

Kinds of 94 

In Red River Valley 241 

^e'at. Composition of 94 

On Lake Upham Bottom 245 

Peat Moss 92, 96 

Pembina Delta 137 

Pike Island 269 

Platteville Limestone 173, 175, 179, 182 

Pomme de Terre River 336, 354 

Pomme de Terre Valley 321 

Pot-Holes 165. 171, 172 

Prairies 25, 48, 332 

Described 309 

I..andscape 83 

Pre-Cambrian Formation 287 

Pre-Cambrian Rocks 338, 364, 370, 372 

At Carlton 325 

Quarries 75, 76, 77 

Quartz 72, 73, 169 

Quartzite 76, 115. 116, 338, 372 

Quartzite Formations 293 

Quartzite Boulders 73, 74 

Quartzite, Hill of 147 

Quartzite Outcrop 295 

Quartzite Ridge 287 

Rabbitt Lake 191, 193 

Rainy River 29 

Ranges, The 25 



Page 

Red Drift 57. -'i, 59, 353 

Soils of 2 •-'■>. 230, 235 

Red Drift Outwash 279 

Red Drift Stony Loam 228 

Red Lake 28, 58 

Red River ot" the North 139 

Valley of 144 

Red River Valley 25, 121, 124, 125. 

12.^, 130, 342 

Northward Slope of 131 

Soils of 190, 237 

Redstone Hill 141, 148 

Reindeer 105 

Retreat of Ice Front 57, 58, 12'?, L2S, 

H)5. 197 

River, Beginning of 31-33 

River Warren 115, 117, 118. 120, 131, 
138, 147, 148, 149, 175, 177, 266, 

321, 336, 354 

Roche Moutonnee 267 

Rock Divide, Gut across 163 

Rock F'ormations 109 

Rocky Lands .26, 27 

Rollingstone Valley 287, 302 

RosemtfUr.t Prairie 59 

Rum River , . . 28 

St. Anthony Falls 174, na, 33fl 

Beginning of 175, 176 

Recession of 180 

St. Anthony River 176 

St. Croix River 28, 325 

Glacial 320 

St. Croix Falls 159, 164, l!>5, 166. 169 

St. Croix Sandstone 299 

St. Louis River 27 

Glacial L85, 186 

Valley 25 

St. Peter Sandstone 174. 175, 1S2, 267, 
269, 270, 276, 290, 291. 298. 300, 

303. 305, 31.], 339, 356 

Sand Pits 79 

Sandy Soils. Lake-washed 237 

Sandy Soils of Red River Valley. . . 238 

Sandstone 324 

Sauk Valley, Old Valley of Mississippi 

153 

Sawtooth Mountains 246 

Sedimentary Formations L69, 170 

Shakopee Limestone 216. 267. 273, 802. 

305, 310 

Sheyenne Delta 136 

Sibley House 269 

Silt 50, 234 

Sink-Holes 273. 301 

Sioux Quartzite . . 308 

Soils, Classification of 222 

Defined 219 

From Drift Sheets fiO 

Of Red Drift Overlaid by Gray Drift 

22S 

Types of 220 

Stony Loam of Iron Ranges 246 

Straight River 28 



395 



Page 

Striae 295, 325, 351 

Described 41 

Photograph 43 

Subsoil 219 

Superior National Forest 245, 246 

Superior Red Drift 61 

Superior Red Clay 324, 364 

Superior (Wis.) 324, 359, 364 

Swamps 96 

Character of ' 241 

Defined 90 

Distinguished from Bog 93 

Landscape 83 

Soils of , 237, 240 

Terraces 117, 118, 119, 302, 304, 3uS, 

314, 339, 356, 359, 364 

Of Lake Duluth 187 

Of Minnesota 146, 280 

Of St. Croix 163. 163, 166 

Of Zumbro 278 

Tertiary Time 116, 214, 216 

Till 48, 231 

Lake-washed, Soils of 237 

Till-plains 48. 243 

Character of 197 

Soils of 231, 233, 236, 241, 242, 243 

Time (Geologic) Long 172 

Tintah Beach 125, 131, 137, 138, 328, 

352, 355 
Tintah Stage 138 



I'age 
Traverse Gap 121, 124, 125, 126, 132, 

144, 146, 336, 35S 
Traverse Lake 123, 124, 125, 128, 131, 137 
Trenton Limestone 267, 269, 270, 273, 
276, 291, 298, 299, 300, 301, 303, 

305, 316, 339 

Eroded Forms 301, 302 

Upham, Warren Cited 125, 127, 128, 

130, 191, 204, 271, 289, 360, 361 

Vermilion Lake 25 

Vermilion Range 24, 25, 208, 211, 242, 

370 

Volcanic Ash 168 

Volcanic Hills .24, 27 

Volcanic Lavas 114 

Volcanic Rocks 113, 165, 168, 369 

Weathered Zoi.ti 60, 166 

White Bear Lake 159 

AVild Four-footed Game -54 

Wisconsin Drift, Defined 60 

Wisconsin Ice Invasion, The 56 

Wisconsin Point 189 

Wisconsin Stage 61, 62 

Defined 60 

Young Gray Drift 165, 270, 271, 285, 307 

Border of 303, 306, 308, 309 

Soils of 226 

Young Landscape 101, 102, 280, 336 

Young Red Drift 165. 166, 227 

Zumbro Valley, Forested 86 



NOTES 



NOTES 



NOTES 



NOTES 



a 



The Story of the Prairies" 



A book describing the soils and natural resources of North Dakota is a 
companion volume to 

"The Story of the North Star State." 

It contains 376 pages, and is profusely illustrated. . . 

IT IS IN THE LIBRARIES OF MOST OF THE LARGER CITIES OF THE 
UNITED STATES, and in many foreign countries, 

THIS BOOK IS NOW IN THE NINTH EDITION, and is widely used in the 
schools of North Dakota and in private libraries. 

It is scientific, yet is written in an interesting style and in simple language. 

In a review of the book at the time of publication The Boston Transcript 
said: 

The book is a rare and important contribution to science and knowledge. 
It will supply to the seeker of information what he would have great difficulty 
in finding so clearly and concisely stated in any other place. The facts are 
given in excellent form and with nice discrimination. 

The Dakota Farmer said editorially of it: 

Among the very first books to be found in private libraries of the Northwest 
should be this beautifully told "Story of the Prairies." 

The following excerpts are from letters received by the author at the 
time of first publication of the book: 

Superintendent City Schools, Jamestown, N. D.: 

I have just read your "Story of the Prairies" and am delighted with it. 
You have rendered a great service to the cause of education in North Dakota. 
The book explains the origin of the landscape features in such simple language 
that pupils studying the usual books in geography may easily comprehend. 

University ot Minnesota. N. H. AVinchell, Late State Geologist: 

The book is admirable in all respects. It cannot fail to be of immense 
good, and of great interest to every reader. Would that every State had a 
similar treatment. 

Superintendent Schools, Cass County, N. D.: 

We have had a most enjoyable time with "The Story of the Prairies." 
Our teachers are delighted. 

Superintendent Eddy County Schools: 

Your entertaining book "The Story of the Prairies" was received a few 
days ago. I found the text and illustrations so full of interest that it was 
difficult to lay the volume aside. I think you are the first in the field with a 
book of this character, which I think meets a distinct need. It merits a 
wide circulation. 

Superintendent City Schools, Larimore, N. D.: 

The farmer, the merchant, the stockman, the capitalist, will here find a 
book that will repay careful reading. The author has done the State a service 
that I hope will be appreciated. 

Dr. Warren Upham, Author of "Glacial Lake Agassiz": 

It is a very interesting and instructive description of North Dakota. You 
should certainly be congratulated upon having produced a work of such useful- 
ness and interest. Few books of the scope and character of yours have been 
written about any portion of our country. 

United States Senate. Hon. Knute Nelson: 

I have just finished reading your book "The Story of the Prairies." which 
I found both instructive and interesting; in fact most of it read to me like 
a novel. I wish we could have a book on similar lines and scope and written 
in the same style for Minnesota. 

"THE STORY OF THE PRAIRIES." $2.25. 

"THE STORY OF THE NORTH STAR STATE." $2.50. 

The two volumes to one address. $4.50, postpaid. 

Published and for sale by the Author, 

DANIEL E. WTLLARD 

St. Anthony Hill Station, Saint Paul, Minnesota. 



